



fe^^>-: 






,1 






S'':, 



CHRIST OUR LIFE:^.^^ 



IN 



ITS OEIGIN, LAW, AND END. 



BY 



JOSEPH ANGUS, D.D. 

MEMBER OF THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



^^ 



" Christ . . . our life." " To me to live is Christ." — Col. iii. 4 : Phil. i. 21. 




PHILADELPHIA: 
AMEPJCAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY. 

118 ARCH STREET. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by the 

AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, in 
and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 



PHILADELPHIA* 
STEREOTYPED BY GEORGE CHARLES, 
PRINTED BY KING & EAIRD. 



ADVERTISEMENT, 



In republishing tlie following work the American Baptist Publi- 
cation Society has been influenced by several independent consider- 
ations. Its peculiar design, so far from giving it a limited local 
bearing, has given it a peculiarly broad and catholic character, 
adapted to intelligent minds in every region of the earth, in every 
condition of culture or of creed. It also imparts a comprehensive- 
ness to its plans, and a freshness of view in its execution. Its 
general merit is sufficiently attested by the unanimous decision of 
the Committee — all of them members of the Church of England — ■ 
after an examination of sixty-four manuscripts. Its Author, Dr. 
Angus, late Secretary of the Baptist Missionary Society, is now 
President of Stepney College, London. 

In the Editorial revision of the work for the American public, 
very few changes have been required or admitted. The style is 
distinguished by its clearness and classic beauty. Wherever any 
difference of judgment of sufficient moment occurred, the Editor 
has preferred to express it in the Notes. The Editor's Notes are 
distinguished from those of the Author by the initials — J. N. B. 

For general reading, for the aid of the young theological student, 
for Bible Classes, and for Sabbath School Teachers in particular, 
this volume will be found a peculiar treasure. Christ, in His vari- 
ous interesting relations, is the centre, the soul, and the glory of 
the book. It is a book for the whole world — and especially so in 
these times of expanding knowledge, of commercial and missionary 
movement, and of almost universal transition to a new and better 
order of things. 



(3) 



TO THE UNKNOWN FRIEND 



(with whose generous liberality this essay originated) 



AND 



TO ALL OF EVERY NAME 



WHO HAVE received FROM CHRIST A MISSION 'FOR THE OBEDIENCE OP i 



THESE PAGES ARE RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED. 



PKEFACE. 



The following pages originated in tlie public appli- 
cation of a gentleman in the civil service of tlie East 
India Company for an " Essay on the Life of 
Christ, adapted to missionary purposes, and suitable 
for translation into the vernacular languages of 
India.'' 

The subjects recommended for special discussion 
and illustration were: — The Original Deity of the 
Son of God : The circumstances of His life and death, 
so as to show the wonders of His love in the work of 
redemption, and the sinfulness of sin : The glorious 
exaltation of Christ, and His second coming: the 
whole being intended to exhibit most forcibly to the 
minds of intelligent heathen the wonderful character 
of the Son of God. 

A nobler theme never occupied the pen or heart 
of man ! 

When the writer's attention was called to this 
announcement, the condition of the heathen and of 
India had long occupied his thoughts ; and he was 
at the time engaged in reading the life of our Lord 
with a class of students entrusted to his care. His 
own mind had been profoundly impressed with the 
richness and depth of the Gospel narrative, and he 
was induced to set forth his conceptions of it in the 

1* (5) 



6 PREFACE. 

following form. The Essay was sent in to the adju- 
dicators — the Eev. Professor Scholefield, of the Uni- 
versity of Cambridge; the Eev. John Tucker, Secre- 
tary of the Church Missionary Society ; and the Eev. 
Thomas Sale, now Vicar of Sheffield — and of the 
sixty-four submitted to them, it was declared by their 
unanimous decision to be the best adapted for the 
purpose contemplated by the advertiser. 

In the narrative of the Gospels, the writer has 
adopted the arrangement of Dr. Eobinson of New 
York, deeming it on the whole the most satisfactory 
that has been published. In the sections on ^' Christ 
incarnate a Saviour through suffering," and on 
^'Christ crucified afresh," he has availed himself of 
sermons by Dr. Wayland, of Brown University, 
Ehode Island; and the late Eev. Professor Butler, 
of Dublin. In both sections he has given little more 
than their thoughts in his own words, and in such 
order as seemed best suited to the special design of 
the volume. 

If these pages succeed in calling attention to the 
devout study of our Lord's life, the writer can from 
experience promise to such readers an ample recom- 
pense ; and he will himself feel that, so far as this 
country is concerned, his end is gained. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Chapter I. Introductory ....,, 9 
Sect. 1. Different families but one blood . . . .11 

2. Progress in error . . . . . .16 

3. Results moral and practical . . . . .27 

4. Palestine the scene of t|ie labors of the Messiab . 37 
6. The Gospels the record of His life . . .43 

Chapter II. The Birth and Childhood of Christ . . 53 

Sect. 1. Events connected with the birth and childhood of our 

Lord . . . . . . .55 

2. Christ perfect man and perfect God . . . 61 ^ 

3. The fullness of time . . . . .70 

4. State of the Jews when the Messiah appeared . . 79 

Chapter III. Events connected with Christ's entrance on 

His personal Ministry . . . .87 

Sect. 1. The mission of John, and his testimony concerning 

Christ ....... 89 

2. The Temptation, and John's second testimony concern- 

ing Christ . . . . . .95 

3. The beginning of signs ..... 102 

4. Christ's first public act . • • . .111 

5. Christ's first discourse . . . • .112 

6. Christ's first journey ..... 120 

7. The first rejection of Christ by his countrymen . . 127 

8. Christ incarnate'the revelation of God and the model of 

holiness ....... 131 *^~ 

9. Christ incarnate a Saviour through suffering . . 138 

(7) 



8 



CONTENTS. 



Chapter IV. The Teacher and Prophet: the Law: His own 
WORE • • • • • • « 

Sect. 1. Lessons taught in the earlier miracles of our Lord 

2. The Sermon on the Mount. Christ the fulfillment of 

the Law .•••••• 

3. Christ's teaching in relation to His own work and the 

necessity of faith • • . • . 

4. Christ^s further disclosures in Galilee and Judaea 

5. Teaching by parables • • . • . 

Chapter V. Christ the Priest and Sacrifice . 
Sect. 1. Christ goes up to Jerusalem to be crucified 

2. The Church and the institution of the Lord^s Supper . 

3. The denial of Peter, and the crucifixion of our Lord 

4. Christ crucified afresh, or the feelings that actuated 

His murderers common to every age • 

5. Christ our Propitiation and Priest; the influence of the 

cross on God and man . . • . , 

Chapter VL Christ as Kma . . 

Sect. 1. The Resurrection cf our Lord, and lessons connected 
with it . 

2. Christ the King of Hades — the Forerunner — the First- 

Fruits of them that Slept . . . , 

3. The Invisible King . • , , , 

4. His second coming • • # . . 



PAOB 

149 
153 

166 



235 
239 
245 
253 

261 

269 
293 

295 

305 
311 
323 



CHAPTER L 



INTRODUCTORY. 

§ 1. Different Families, but one Blood. 

§ 2. Progress in Error. 

§ 3. Results Moral and Practical. 

§ 4. Palestine, the Scene of the Labors of the 

Messiah. 

§ 5. The Gospels, the Record of his Life. 



(9) 



CHAPTER I 



INTRODUCTORY. 

Sect. I. — Different Families, but one Blood, 

1. A thousand years before the Vedas were written, 
(B. 0. 1400,) and at least 1800 before the laws Gatherings at 
of Menu, which form the basis of Hindoo juris- shinaar. 
prudence, were composed, (B. C. 600,) the descendants of 
the second father of the human family (who had been 
miraculously saved from a fearful flood, began to multiply 
on the earth. As they multiplied, they removed from the 
mountain districts of Armenia to the well-watered plains 
of Shinaar, between the rivers Hiddekel (Tigris) and Eu- 
phrates, *Hhe swift-flowing" and *Hhe fruitful." Here, in 
very early times, men were formed into families, and esta- 
blished in towns and villages. Here also they followed 
agriculture, built cities, and practised many of the arts of 
civilized life. 

2. As they grew in numbers they grew in wickedness ; 
till at length, partly as a punishment of their 

. K n n ... One Faith. 

sms, and partly as a consequence oi failing 
pasture and deficient produce, they became scattered ; each 
band retaining the civilization and the fragments of reli- 
gious truth which the better men among them had pre- 
served. From a book of demonstrable antiquity, contain- 
ing records that can be traced to within a comparatively 
short period of the time when these events took place, we 

(11) 



12 INTRODUCTORY. 

gather that, eyen then and for ages later, there was a gene- 
ral belief in the nnitj of God, in the creation and preserva- 
tion of all things by Divine power, in a general and par- 
ticular Providence, in a Divine law fixing distinctions 
between right and wrong, in the fall and corruption of 
man, in the doctrine of atonement through vicarious suf- 
fering, in direct Divine spiritual influence, in human respon- 
sibility, and in the necessity for practical holiness. True 
religion, in fact, has ever been faith and obedience ; an 
humble, submissive repose of the heart on Divine truth, 
and appropriate holiness. Whether it be regarded as a 
system of truth — objective religion, or as a system of holy 
affection — subjective religion, it has never changed. 

3. JSTor is it difficult to account for either the complete- 
its origin ex- ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ diffusion of this knowledge. The 
plained. flood of watcrs occurrcd in the life-time of the 

third generation from Adam, our first parent. He had 
been created by God in his own image ; but yielding to 
temptation he fell, and involved us all in his ruin. For 
many years Lamech was his contemporary ; Lamech again 
was the father of Noah, and the contemporary for many 
years of Shem, as Shem was of Abraham, the father of the 
people ^' of whom, according to the flesh, Christ came.'' 

Methuselah, again, was for more than two hundred 
years a contemporary of Adam, and for six hundred years 
of Noah ; and through him, or other similar channels, 
might the knowledge of the true God have been trans- 
mitted and preserved.* During the whole of this interval, 
too, many eminently holy men appeared — Abel, Seth, 
Enoch, and Noah, all of them preachers of righteousness, 
and valiant for the truth upon the earth. 

* This is the Hebrew chronology. The chronology of the LXX. makes 
the insertion of another generation necessary both before and after the 
Deluge. But this difference is of little moment. The transmission of Di- 
vine knowledge is nearly equally easy in either case. 



§ 1. DIFFERENT FAMILIES, BUT ONE BLOOD 13 

4. In spite of these influences, however, human nature 
soon showed its true character, and its lamen- gpeedy deteri- 
table tendency to deterioration. Before the °'^^^^^^- 
flood, God had seen that the wickedness of men was great, 
that every imagination of the thoughts of their heart was 
only evil continually, and the flood left them unchanged. 

As early as the days of Shem, the son of Noah, idolatry 
was openly practised in Chaldea, the country of Abraham ; 
and not more than a hundred years after the death of 
Noah, the whole district of Sodom and Gomorrah was de- 
stroyed in consequence of the guilt of its inhabitants. 
Fire from heaven, combined with the bitumen and sulphur 
of that region, consumed them. The plain is now filled 
with the Dead Sea, whose waters exhibit in their saltness, 
and slimy bituminous qualities, evidences of the fearful 
catastrophe with which it was visited. 

5. As the first settlers in Shinaar were dispersed, they 
went in different directions, and according to the Migration of 
families to which they belonged. The sons of ®^^^^ settlers. 
Japhet, the eldest-born, travelled northward, Madai and 
his descendants settling on the borders of the Caspian, and 
Gomer and his descendants on the borders of the Black 
Sea. Here their numbers increased ; till, at length, many 
of the descendants of Madai moved down into Hindustan, 
while many of the descendants of Gomer moved westward, 
(with other branches of the same great family) into Europe. 
The primaBval inhabitants, therefore, of India, those who 
first spoke the Sanscrit tongue, and nearly all who after- 
wards migrated among them from the north, were, eth- 
nographically, Caucasians,* and belonged to the same 
division of the human family which have since made the 
inhabitants of the western world, and of Britain especially, 
the moving spirits of the earth. India and Europe are 

■* So caUed from the range of mountains near which they had originally 
settled. 

2 



14 INTRODUCTORY. 

allied, therefore, not only through a common interest, but 
through the close connection of the races that first peopled 
them. 

From Shem, whose descendants remained at Shinaar, 
and ultimately occupied Arabia and Syria, were descended 
the Chaldeans, the Persians,* the Assyrians, the Jews and 
the Mohammedan nations, who have since modified the 
character of the population of the east, either by migra- 
tion or conquest. Through this branch of the 

Connection of 

Europe and In- great family of man, India has closer ethno- 
graphical connection with the natives of Pales- 
tine than Europeans ; and it is clear that, if Europe has 
received the Messiah of the Jews, it is not because He is 
of her race, but because she is convinced of the divinity of 
His claims. 

The descendants of Ham settled in Egypt and in other 
parts of Africa, and have had frequent intercourse, by sea, 
with India. From that country, indeed, it is generally 
thought, they imported their arts and learning. 

6. If we seek for further evidence of this connection 
between Europe' and '* utmost Ind," it is 

Evidence of this , ^ . . ' 

connection in fouud iu the affinities which subsist between 

Mythology and i -, . « 

the languages and the mythologies of the two 
regions. The polluted streams of Greek, Slavonic, and 
Hindoo mythology have, evidently, a common source; 
their myths a common basis, and their rites and ceremonies 
a common authority. Many of the gods which crowd the 
Pantheon of the East were known, under appropriate 
names, to Homer and Hesiod, and to our Saxon fore- 
fathers. The Indra and Yama of the East are the Pluvius 
and Pluto of Rome. The god of the waters (Peruna), and 
the goddess of love, (Rembha), are the Neptune and 

* The Shemitish Persians, however, were early overcome by tribes 
descended from Japhet. Modern Persians, therefore, belong chiefly to 
the Caucasian race, some to the family of Ham. 



§ 1. DIFFERENT FAMILIES, BUT ONE BLOOD. 15 

Venus of the West. The very names of the days of the 
week are called, in India, by names taken from the same 
deities as preside in Western calculations over those por- 
tions of time. This general conclusion is not affected by 
the fact, that the religion of each of these nations was 
influenced by peculiarities of position and of climate. The 
German and the Briton kindled their devotion beside their 
blood-stained altars, in the depth of the forest ; the Koman 
blended his religion with luxury or war ; the Greek with 
poetry, philosophy, or art. But these differences refer 
rather to the forms of devotion most popular among these 
various tribes, than to the objects of their worship. The 
people had really the same gods, though the services 
offered to them changed with the national character and 
circumstances of the worshippers. To complete this 
evidence, it must be added, that nearly all the branches of 
the Shemitish nations were monotheistic, and, instead of 
supplying Europe and Asia with idols, borrowed them 
when guilty of idolatry, from the descendants of Japhet or 
of Ham. 

T. Further, it is notorious that the Sanscrit language, 
with its numerous derivatives, is closely con- 
nected, both in matter and in form, with the 
Greek, Latin, German, and Sclavonic tongues. There are 
in Sanscrit no less than nine hundred words having the 
same root as corresponding words in the languages of the 
West, while affinities of form supply evidence of a common 
origin no less striking and decisive ; indeed it is indispu- 
table, that the ancestors of those who now speak the 
Sanscrit and the Gothic, (including, under the former, 
most of the derivative dialects of the East, and, under the 
latter, the Sclavonic, the German, high and low, and the 
classic languages of ancient Europe,) had once a common 
tongue, and interchanged their thoughts by similar ele- 



16 INTRODUCTORY. 

ments of speech. So true is tlie Scripture declaration, that 
men were divided '^according to their families," though 
made of one blood, and possessing, first in Adam, and then 
in Noah, a common progenitor. This truth, — the identity 
of India and Europe, — is completed when we add to it the 
fact, that both have fallen through a common calamity, and 
are, in Christ, invited to an interest in what is emphati- 
cally a '^ common salvation." 

Sect. 2. — Progress in Error. 

8. It may seem a long and a useless task to enumerate 

and classify the religious errors that prevailed 

Error is appa- "^ rw 

rentiy infinite, in the Wcstcm world whcu the Saviour ap- 

but 

peared. Truth is unchanging, but error is, 
from its nature, mutable and endless. 

9. But though the forms of error are, in themselves, 

infinite, error is practically limited. To be 

really limited. 

Study of it believed at all, it must be blended with truth, 

useful, 

or it must be adapted to the human heart 
Under either necessity the number of its forms is lessened, 
and they all become objects of interest, for the study of 
them throws light either upon truth, or upon human 
nature, or upon both. 

10. In another respect, too, the history of error is 

important. If we ascertain its character and 

in various ways. , . . ,. . , i n i 

working m one religious system, we shall have 
a key to systems less accurately known. Popular errors 
repeat themselves ; and, if we analyze them once, we are 
prepared to trace and investigate them elsewhere. Phari- 
saism, for example, is found the world over. Sadduceeism 
is rationalistic infidelity, whether in India or in Europe. 
The cosmogonies of the Ionic school of philosophy, in 
Greece, have been revived in China ; and we find, in our 
own Western continent, both the polytheism and the 



§ 2. PROGRESS IN ERROR. It 

pantheistic tendencies of the systems of Brahma and 
Buddh. 

11. '* There is one God; he is a Spirit, and they that 
worship him must worship him in spirit and in 

Monotheism 

truth/' are lessons of Holy Scripture, once and spiritual 

7 . T m T . .11 T worship once 

known to all mankind. Tradition still preserved universal, 
among the primitive tribes of America, speaks sophicai traoi- 
of the Great Spirit." Greece had its ^' Father 
of Gods," who was himself before them all, Kpovoj. Even 
Parseeism had ^^illimitable time," whose essence enshrouds 
both Ormuzd and Ahriman ; as Hindooism has its ^' abso- 
lute intelligence," its '^essential light," *'rest," and '^con- 
templation ;" forms of expression which connect the pan- 
theism of India with the antagonistic Buddhism of Ceylon 
and China. 

12. And while philosophy has disclosed the existence 
among the intelligent of a belief of this truth, j^ ^^e popular 
its existence is attested by the language of ^^^^^^°- 
common life. *'In the deepest emotions of their minds, 
the heathen," says Tertullian, '' never direct their exclama- 
tions to their false gods, but employ the words — ' God help 
me,' — 'as God liveth;' and then moreover, they look not 
to the capitol but to the heavens." Aulus Gellius informs 
us, (Noctes Atticag, ii. 28.) in the same strain, that the 
ancient Romans were not accustomed during earthquakes 
to pray to some gods individually, but only to God in 
general, as to the Great Unknown. Even in India, the 
Hindoo speaks of God as possessed of a unity of which 
he certainly finds no counterpart in his present system. 
He regards Him as Creator, Preserver, and Ruler. He 
calls Him as a witness of his integrity; and, when not 
thinking of the creed which he is bound to defend, employs 
forms of speech and inadvertent references, which show 
that the teaching of his conscience is better than the 
teaching of his faith. 

2* 



18 INTRODUCTORY. 

13. This view takes for granted, of course, that false 

religions are more modern than the true ; and 

True religion ° • \/r 

older than this representation all historv sustams. '^Most 

false. ^ 

nations," says J. von Miiller, ^'though entirely 
uncultivated in other things, had perfectly correct views 
of God, of the world, of immortality ; while the arts, which 
pertain to the conveniences of life, are much younger. It 
seems, in fact, as if the breath of the Divinity within us, 
our spirit, had acquired through the immediate teaching of 
a higher Being, and for a long time had retained, certain 
indispensable ideas and habits, while what pertains to the 
employment of material capacities was left for the exercise 
of our own mental powers." Herder and F. Schlegel, and 
a host of others, concur in this view; while in ancient 
times, Plato and Aristotle agree in affirming that the early 
state of man was neither savage nor corrupt, but a simple 
and holy state, approaching nearer to the Divine— a state 
from which the savage and the corrupt man are equally 
removed. 

14. How this belief in the being of one Supreme Deity 
Origin of false ^udcd iu the belief of many gods, is explained 
systems. ^^ |]^g Epistlc to the Romaus. '' The wrath 
of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and 
unholiness of men, who through unholiness suppress the 
truth. For so much as can be known of God is manifested 
to them ; for what in him is peculiarly invisible — his eternal 
power and divinity — appears visible in his works since the 
creation of the world as soon as we contemplate them ; so 
that the heathen are without excuse; they knew God 
indeed, but they honored him not as God, nor were they 
thankful to him as such ; but they became trifling and vain 
in their speculations, and their apprehension was darkened 
— pretending to be wise they became fools, and put in the 
place* of the glory of the incorruptible God, an image of 

* 'r^'kXa^av, h not ec^. 



§ 2. PROGRESS IN ERROR. 19 

the form of corruptible man, and of birds, of four-footed 
beasts, and of creeping things. Therefore God also gave 
them up through the lusts of their sense to impurity, so 
that they have dishonored their own bodies ; they have 
changed the truth of God into a lie, and have reverenced 
and worshipped the creature rather than the Creator, who 
is blessed for ever, amen. Wherefore God gave them up 
to debasing passions. And as they did not regard it as 
worth their pains to keep God in their knowledge, God 
gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do things abominable, 
being full of all unholiness, whoredom, malice, avarice, base- 
ness, full of envy, of murder, of strife, deceit, and malig- 
nity, calumniators, slanderers, despisers of God, haughty, 
proud, boastful, mischief-makers, disobedient to parents, 
covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, 
unmerciful ; who, though they well know the law of God, 
that they who do such things are worthy of death, not only 
do the same, but also bestow praise on those who do them.^' 
Moral corruption, therefore, first led to idolatry. 

15. As long as man remained in a living moral relation 
to God, the diversity which seems to pervade 
all nature created little attention and no mis- 
giving. Accustomed to exercise faith, men saw through 
the diversity into the unity that lay beneath it ; or they 
had at least no guilty fear. But when this condition was 
lost, and the holiness of the Divine character grew distaste- 
ful, the visible alone came gradually to be regarded ; the 
heavens, the earth, the winds, the sea. Men found it diffi- 
cult perhaps to look away from what lay before their eyes ; 
and disliking conclusions which brought them into imme- 
diate relation to a God almighty, omnipresent, and per- 
fectly holy, they ended in finding a god in each individual 
appearance, or in every hope or fear which distracted their 
hearts. Thus Polytheism arose. 



20 INTRODUCTORY. 

16. More sagacious minds started back from the results 

of this system ; and thinking that they per- 
ceived unity amidst all the diversity of nature, 
but still renouncing the knowledge of one holy, self-existent 
God above the world, they regarded as God that collective 
vitality which appeared in the whole. Hence arose Pan- 
theism — a system which reunited the animating principles 
of the previous theory, and taught, on the one hand, that 
all its separate deities were parts of the soul of the world, 
or emanations of the great Fountain of mind ; and held on 
the other, that mind and matter were distinctions purely 
metaphysical and imaginary ; that every thing was God, 
and God every thing, the whole universe being one and 
indivisible. Possibly some sages ascended higher still, and 
recognised in this poetical pantheism the foundation of a 
moral monotheism, which, however, was too sublime and 
simple for even their own faith. 

17. Whether this order of error be the universal one, 
Progress and ^^J ^® disputed. Amoug somc nations, the 
^cr^of these p(^'^^^eistic tcudeucy seems to have developed 
eystems. itsclf first, and transmigration was one of its 
results — a doctrine that resolves all souls into one — the 
soul of the world, which first divides its essence, and then 
reabsorbs the parts. Among other nations, polytheism first 
appeared under the form of the worship of the visible 
heavens, and of the Spirit who was supposed to animate 
them ; then of the heavenly bodies ; then of the represen- 
tatives of the various energies of nature, as distinct deities ; 
then, perhaps, of deceased heroes. From this polytheism 
again sprung pantheism. The idea of separate deities was 
too gross to please the philosopher. As the common peo- 
ple had marked the various phenomena of the universe, and 
ascribed each to a separate god, he took those gods, and 
traced them all in the same way to a common infinite in- 
telligence. ^^ God," says Zeno, *^ is the Author and Father 



§ 2. PROGRESS IN ERROR. 21 

of all ; and he is called by various names, according to the 
power manifested. He is Dis, because all things are 
THROUGH him ; Zeus,^ because all live by him ; Athene^ 
because his directing power is diffused in air.f These 
etymologies may be questioned, but the remark illustrates 
a principle of admitted truth. 

In most countries, probably, the two systems prevailed 
contemporaneously, as in Greece. The Vedas, too, favor 
the application of this conclusion to India ; for they seem 
to suggest doubts whether man and all things were not 
parts of the Divinity, though they abound in polytheistic 
instructions. Buddhism, professedly pantheistic, and at 
first anti-polytheistic, is notoriously polytheistic ; for while 
it admits one Buddha, it reverences and worships even 
animals, as possibly containing proper forms of that Intel- 
ligence which is all-pervading and supreme. 

18. The tendencies of these systems may be easily 
illustrated from the history of Grecian sects, mustrated in 
In the time of our Lord the whole western ^^^^^e. 
world was divided into three great classes : the followers of 
Epicurus, of Zeno, and of Plato. The first admitted the 
existence of a Divine Being as a philosophical 

ii T. 11 -TT-iiTi Epicureanism. 

truth, on condition only that He should have 
no connection with the world ; and held, at the same time, 
that there were inferior deities, as represented in the 
mythologies of the day ; the belief in those gods being, in 
the opinion, of the founder of this sect, a proof of their 
existence ; for all belief he maintained to be an effluence 
of real objects. J 

* The Greek derivation is here adopted; but both Zcvj and Atj are 
forms of an old Sanscrit word, applied also to the supreme God. 

f In Diog. Laertius, vii. 147. 

X Nothing can represent more accurately than the language ascribed 
by Cicero to Velleius, the views of the Epicureans : — Imposuistis in cer- 
vicibus nostris sempiternum dominum, quern dies et noctes timeremus. 



22 INTRODUCTORY. 

I 

The followers of Zeno, or the Stoics, were strictly pan- 
theists ; holding that the world itself is divine, 
and that the Deity dwells in it. Nor do the 
Academics, the followers of Plato, greatly differ from the 
Stoics in these respects : for all held that God is deified 
living nature ; that this deity is the source of the human soul, 
and the principle into which it will ultimately 

The Platonists. ^ t i i ^ -t nr ^i /. 

return and be absorbed. Man, therefore, m 
both systems, was taken as the sample of the Godhead, 
whom he was to judge of and measure by himself. In both 
systems common men, with minds dissipated amid the 
multitude of visible things, have intercourse only with 
those mediatorial deities who approach nearest to them- 
selves : while the spiritual man, living in contemplation, 
soars upwards, in thought at least, to the supreme original 
Essence.* 

19. Concerning these sects, it is obvious to remark, 

that the first is atheistic in its spirit. Epicu- 

All Pantheis- ^ ^ 

tic, Atheistic, reanism believed in the existence of a supreme 
God, but it robbed him of all his attributes. 
He neither sees, nor does he desire or act. He is without 
superintendence or control ; without power or life. The 
inferior deities are, like himself, eternal and imperishable, 
living in a state of complete repose. The very God of 

Quis enim non timeat omnia provtdenfem, et cogitantem, et animadoer- 
tentem, et omnia ad se pertinere putantem, curiosum et plenum negoti 
Deum? De Nat, Deor. i. 20. 

'^ Plato's Siv is distinguished from the Qtol ytvriToX of his system. 
Attempts, such as Plato's, to bring back the faith of man from the visible 
deities to the Great Invisible, have been made in all ages ; though, per^ 
haps, never (apart from Revelation) with greater originality and purity 
than are manifested in Plato's writings. There is at present a society in 
India, formed for the same purpose, a kind of Hindoo Unitarians. The 
futility of all such attempts — apart from Revelation — is proved from the 
history of all ancient philosophy. 



§ 2. PROGRESS IN ERROR. 23 

Epicurus, therefore, is a mere negation : and his nature is 
denied in the very terms that admit his being. 

This atheistic spirit was confirmed by other parts of his 
system. He taught that the world is not the work of an 
intelligent Cause, but a fatherless child, a causeless effect, 
disowned by all superior natures, the result of a fortuitous 
concourse of atoms. The soul, he maintained, is cor- 
poreal, and perishes with the dissolution of the atoms of 
which it is composed. Pleasure is our sovereign good; 
and man's chief end is exemption from suffering, and the 
gratification of natural desires. In this system, therefore, 
we are our own law, without higher governor or judge. 
Death is nothing, and there is nothing beyond it. 

Stoicism, in some of its sects, held that matter and spirit 
are identical ; mind being the bright fountain of all things, 
but becoming gross and dim as it flowed at a distance from 
its source. What is called creation is but the expansion 
of the Deity. The contraction again of the same object 
to its original dimensions, will be the annihilation of the 
world. Hence all that is, is God ; and there is no exist- 
ence but God. As the tree of the forest is but the growth 
of the original germ, and the leaves, fruit, and stem are, 
though diverse in form, but one tree ; so is the universe an 
expansion of God. As the diamond and the coal are both 
carbon ; as air and water are but the same elements in 
different proportions ; so all nature is but the varied God. 
It is he who 

Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze, 
Glows in the stars, and blossoms, in the trees, 
Lives through all life, extends through all extent. 
Spreads undivided, operates unspent. 

Such is speculative Stoicism. 

Platonism again applied this doctrine of emanation to 
spirit, rather than to matter ; but, with this exception, used 
language not different from that of the Stoic. And con- 



24 INTRODUCTORY. 

cerning both systems, it may be affirmed that they tend, 
both logically and in popular feeling, either to practical 
atheism, or to polytheism. Stoicism taught that every 
thing which is, is God, and will be absorbed into the Divine 
essence ; Platonism confines this dogma to the souls of men. 
In both a real Deity is denied. The true God is as we 
know, indivisible. Both systems divided him into infini- 
tesimal portions. He is incapable of change, of impurity, 
of suffering. Both systems make him subject to them all. 
A God whose attributes are identical with men, or with 
nature, is clearly robbed of all that is characteristic and 
divine. The one system taught that God is matter and 
Creator ; the other, that he is spirit and Creator. Both 
make him to be the material out of which either all things, 
or all rational agents, at least are made. He is at once 
potter and clay, master and servant, father and child, 
governor and subject, judge and criminal. 

In such systems, where all souls are not only God's but 
God, he himself, and all the relations that refer to him, are 
virtually disowned, and all moral government is overthrown. 
The very distinction between good and evil is rendered 
impossible; holiness and sin are attributes of the same 
Spirit, and the only real Spirit is the Godhead. Evil is 
but a development of his character. When men speak, it 
is the Divine Spirit speaking through them ; when they 
act, it is the Divine Spirit acting in them ; and in a fear- 
fully unholy sense, it is '^ one God who worketh all in all." 

20. Nor is it difficult to see how these systems tended to 
Polytheistic encourage Polytheism. The idea of a universal 
.^^^ God, identical in the one system with the uni- 

verse, and in the other with the spirits of men, was too 
vague for the popular mind; but it led naturally to the 
deification of the several parts of the material universe. 
Everything is part of the Deity ; everything, therefore, may 
be adored. But as some selection must be made, those 



§ 2. PROGRESS IN ERROR. 25 

objects which transcend the rest, either in the force with 
which they strike the fancy, or in their utility, come to be 
considered specially divine. Does the sun warm and 
fructify the earth ? It is divine. Does the moon light up 
tne darkness of the night ? It is divine. Does the mighty 
river flow throughout the land ; now marking its course 
with lines of verdure and tracts of fruitfulness, and now 
sweeping away the towns and villages that had flourished 
on its bounty ? It is divine. By a very easy generalisa- 
tion, the principles of preservation and of destruction 
themselves are deified ; and thus systems the most abstract 
and apparently spiritual, foster a Polytheism the most 
cumbrous and degrading. 

21. Hero-worship and mystical asceticism spring from 
the same source; or if already existing, are 
nourished by it. The benefactors of the human Hero-worship 
race, men eminent for their wisdom or power, 

appear as literally partakers of a Divine nature. Their 
voice is the voice of God. When they die, whatever was 
mortal of them passes away ; what remains is Divine, in 
origin, in power, and why not also in destiny and honors. 

If man, again, would elevate and perfect his own nature, 
let him destroy his conscious individuality, let him leave 
the world, gratify no sense, and receive from the external 
universe no impressions. Let him turn his thoughts 
within ; the kingdom of God is there. By contemplation 
the inquirer may become the sage, and the neophyte be 
prepared for intercourse with the Great Spirit from whom 
he sprang, and of whom he is part. 

22. Such was Grecian philosophy, and such to the very 
letter are the systems which now prevail in the 

distant East. Christianity appeared when theEsS^chri" 
these philosophical systems were in their glory iSTSilm^an!^^^ 
in the western world, and they fell before it. 
What was true in them it had already embodied. What 

3 



26 INTRODUCTORY. 

was false it swept away. It can encounter no new forms 
of error, and our conviction of its final triumph is confirmed, 
not only by a persuasion of the power of its Author, but 
by the history of the past. 

Of course the systems of the Eastern and Western worlds, 
while in spirit they are identical, have their characteristic 
differences. In every clime man is always man. He is 
exposed nevertheless, in different regions, to different in- 
fluences. According to these influences, every thing which 
belongs to him, worship, custom, literature, each receives 
its peculiar impress. In Greece religion was devotion to 
external nature, and at last to art ; in Rome it was de- 
votion to country, and then to power. The Greek wor- 
shiped taste, the Roman energy. The Oriental, on the 
other hand, of fervid imagination and of contemplative 
tendencies, learns little of nature or of the world, retires 
into the recesses of his own consciousness, and weaves into 
his mythology traditions and fancies innumerable ! Hence 
have sprung systems, of which it is difficult to say whether 
we wonder most at their luxuriancy or powerlessness. 
Everything seems there, but truth and life. Throughout 
all these characteristic differences, however, there is essen- 
tial sameness ; and the tendencies which we trace in the 
mythologies of the West, are found at work in the godless 
temples of China, and in the pantheons of Hindustan. 

Very touching it is to notice in these systems, moreover, 
a singular blending of the sublime and the degrading ; of 
the spiritual and the earthly. Men seem to have found it 
impossible to realize clearly the idea of God, or their re- 
lation to him. The Epicurean and the Buddhist think 
they do him most honor in deeming him a mere abstraction. 
The Stoic connects him with every change and form of 
life to be traced in the universe. Some call him the Good 
Spirit ; others rather fear than trust him ; while in the 
creed of most he is clothed with attributes which are, ia 



§ 3. MORAL AND PRACTICAL RESULTS. 27 

fact, the reflection of their own. It was reserved for the 
Christian system to meet the wants which these various 
theories represent — a God vast, invisible, spiritual, eternal, 
and yet revealing himself in our own nature, and in such 
a form as commends his character at once to our reverence 
and love. 

Sect. 3. — Moral and Practical Result. 

23. The statements and reasonings of the previous sec- 
tion might be regarded as rather curious than 

IMgii's views of 

important, but for two facts. The first, that Godanevi- 

, , . n rx 1 T . . . dence and a 

men's conceptions of Uod, are a decisive evi- means of their 
dence of their own character ; and the second, ^°^^"^ ^^^' 
that the characters of men are further influenced by those 
conceptions. Both facts are affirmed in the quotations 
given from St. Paul. Where once the knowledge of 
the true God is forgotten, men feign the existence 
of deities like themselves; and where such deities are 
worshiped, their influence degrades and pollutes the 
worshipers. Let us know what men worship, and we can 
tell what they are. Let ns know what they worship, and 
we can tell what they will become. The idolatries of 
nations are at once an evidence and an aggravation of 
their depravity. 

24. What that depravity is, and what it involves, is a 
solemn question, which we now proceed to exa- jj^^ depravity 
mine in the light of Scripture. " In the light ^ay be proved, 
of Scripture,'' because though the question is answered 
in other quarters, it is only in Scripture that it is fuUj/ 
answered; for it is one effect of our depravity, that 
it has enfeebled our very power of perception. Right 
and wrong are less distinctly seen, and much less distinctly 
felt, than they would have been if we had never sinned. 
Let the reader look again at Paul's description of human 
nature, and examine it. He will find that every statement 



28 INTRODUCTORY. 

it contains, even the darkest, is supported (as may be Seen 
in such writings as those of Wetstein or of Leland,)"^- by 
quotations without number from ancient poets, satirists, 
and philosophers. It is supported by every system of 
buman law, and by the whole history of our race. It is 
not, however, to these authorities we now mean to appeal. 
Having the Bible in our hands, we desire to decide this 
question by its teaching ; and it will be found that its 
requirements, contrasted with the admitted condition of 
human nature, give at once the true rule of holiness and 
the true measure of our guilt. 

25. Yirtue or holiness, most comprehensively defined, 
Man's twofold ^^ ^hc acting of moral agents in accordance 
consequent du^ ^^^^ ^^^ rclatious they sustain. The relations 
^^^^ sustained by man are relations towards God 

and towards men,f and virtue in him is right feeling 
and consistent practice towards both. This division is 
sanctioned by the ablest writers on moral science, and 
is repeatedly recognised in Scripture, of which we need no 
better example than the first chapter of the Romans ; where 
the depth of our degradation is shown from the fact that 
the obligations consequent on this twofold relation are left 
Love to God. Unfulfilled. What is due to each we may learn 
LoyetoMan. f^^^ ^]^g BMq, ^' Thou slialt lovc the Lord 
thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself 
Our moral nature corroborates the justness of this rule. 
Men admit that if they do not love God with all their 
hearts, and their neighbors as themselves, then is their 
moral character imperfect, and they become exposed to 
the desert of wrong doing. ' If, on the contrary, neither 

* See Wetstein on Rom. iii., and Leland on the Advantage and Necessity 
of the Christian Revelation, See also Dr. Tholuck on the 3Ioral hifluence 
of Heathenism, 

'\ See Wajland's Moral Science and Sermons, for an admirable sum- 
mary of the duties involved in these relations. 




§ 3. MORAL AND PRACTICAL RESULTS. 29 

part of this precept is violated, then may they claim the 
just rewards of obedience. 

Let us take these rules in the order in which we have 
indicated them, and ask how far men love 

, . .11 ,1 1 -rrr i • ^^^" hpi\e not 

their neighbors as themselves. We desire fuimied their 
happiness and we seek it. The desire and the 
search are both commendable. We claim the right of 
using all proper means for attaining our end ; and if any 
power interfere between us and the end, we are aggrieved 
and complain. What we thus claim for our- 

1 • T i • 1 1 Til 1 I^*^"^^ *o man. 

selves, is due to our neighbor ; and he has the 
right to expect, at our hands, the same feeling, and, as far 
as possible, the same effort for his welfare that we cherish 
and put forth for our own. Such is the law of Scripture, 
and the universal consciousness of men must admit that 
this law is just. 

26. How far men have declined from this law Scripture 
has not told us ; for in this respect men have now broken, 
sinned in very dissimilar degrees. It intimates, man!^^and In 
however, most plainly, that the most eminent relation to God. 
in virtue are still imperfect ; that with all, the tendency is 
not to virtue but to vice. Selfishness and not benevolence 
— undue preference, in fact, for themselves is the law, and 
the contrary the exception. 

Nor does the testimony of Scripture on this point differ 
from the lessons of individual experience. Our fellow- 
men are everywhere around us. We see particularly their 
dispositions, and we can ascertain our own. Upon what 
principle are the most approved maxims of business framed, 
and what truth do they embody ! What, moreover, is 
civil government, but a system of limitations and punish- 
ments, invented for defending the community against the 
selfishness of its members ? In ourselves, too, what is the 
natural bias — strong self-love or disinterested feeling ? 
Are acts of justice, when they involve some sacrifice of 

3* 



30 INTRODUCTORY. 

our own advantage, done without effort ? Is pure, impar- 
tial justice between man and man the rule of human life ? 
But we need not multiply questions. It is notorious that 
man's love to his neighbor yields continually to the de- 
mands of self-interest or of passion ; and the result is, 
that in spite of law and conscience, the earth has been 
filled with violence. Everywhere mankind plead guilty to 
the charge of disobeying the great social command, though 
that command is sanctioned by reason and Scripture. 

We are not ascribing to this corruption the same form 
or degree, though asserting that all men are guilty. The 
holiest come short of the requirement, and this is all we 
affirm. All short-coming, moreover, flows from the same 
fountain. Selfishness and passion, murder and jealousy, 
theft and envy, tyranny and petty vanity, are but modifi- 
cations of what all feel to be corrupt. The forms vary, 
but the principle is the same, and that principle is uni- 
versal. 

Looking, therefore, simply at the extent of the Divine 
command, and contrasting with it the endlessly diversified 
forms of human character, we affirm that men do not any- 
where love their neighbors as themselves. Everywhere, 
and by every one, the law is broken ; and so far the whole 
world is declared guilty before God. 

Infinitely more important than our relation to one an- 
other, is our relation to God. He is our 

Love to God. 

Creator and Preserver. The law, '' Thou shalt 
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart," is in the high- 
est degree just. No one can question it, or offer any other 
TmportanQe of ^^^ ^s a Substitute for it, without involving 
this duty. himself in absurdity. Once maintain that a 
being of infinite benevolence is not deserving of gratitude, 
or that a being of just and boundless authority can claim 
no submission, eternal holiness no reverence, immutable 
faithfulness no trust — and the.very foundation of excellence 



§ 3. MORAL AND PRACTICAL RESULTS. 81 

is overturned, and virtue becomes impossible. The love 
of God is the element of all goodness. Other relations are 
mutable and transient, as are the obligations that spring 
from them. This relation is immutable and eternal ; so 
are its obligations. The relation itself comprehends every 
other. Gravitation in the material world is, in truth, but 
a faint emblem of the importance of this principle in the 
moral. Let either be withdrawn, and all things — both 
heaven and earth — must speedily fall back into disorder 
and ruin. 

ISFow, the distinct assertion of Scripture is, that men 
are ia a godless condition ; that is, that their 

j'1/.T . f* t 1 in How broken. 

estimate of duty is not fixed by a regard for 
God's autliority — that their obedience, even to natural 
laws, is not prompted by reverence for him — that he is not 
loved, as from lih character, he deserves to be. It asserts 
further, that he is, in himself and in his perfections, viewed 
with hatred and dismay. Over and above the charge of 
immorality, therefore. Scripture brings against all men the 
charge either of ungodliness, or of positive aversion to 
God, or, most generally, of both. And the whole of these 
charges may be sustained. 

In men of acknovfledged excellence, fair in character, 
and upright in conduct, this ungodliness pre- j^j^^ u^^ ^jti, 
vails. They have no sense of God. They act ^^* ^^^• 
as they would act were they certain that there was neither 
Divine law, governor, nor judge. The law of God is 
never the reason why they do, or forbear, a single act of 
their lives. Their virtue is purely earthly and secular — 
gathers its motives from a sense of social obligation, or 
from a concern for personal character ; so that while in 
itself lamentably defective, even for present duty, it can 
clearly have no place in the world where God is all and 
in all. 

And though this may seem to be an extreme case, yet 



32 INTRODUCTORY. 

let any man look at his own heart, and ask himself these 
questions in relation to the acts of a single day — ' Was it 
God's will that guided my steps ? Do its transactions 
belong to a self-regulating being, or to a being ever look- 
ing upwards to his Creator, and subordinating himself in 
all things to the rightful authority of the God that made 
him ? If not in every act, yet certainly in a large propor- 
tion of the acts of every day, did I not prefer to be ^* with- 
out God,'' to walk after my own heart, and in the sight of 
my own eyes — and, because God is not in all my thoughts, 
am I not justly condemned V 

Nor must this godlessness be supposed a sinless condi- 
tion. It is really a violation of all moral pro- 

Sinfulness of a. . ... ,, .. 

godless condi- pricty. It IS basc mjustice, the deepest in- 
gratitude, unreasonable pride, and the com- 
pletest selfishness. It is the condition of one who seizes 
upon the gifts of another, and is unmindful of the giver ; 
of one who is willing to forego a regard for his Maker, if 
only his Maker will leave him alone, and keep from him 
that terrible death which he fears, and the still more terri- 
Dle judgment that is to follow it. The total carelessness 
of a child for the parent that gave him birth — ^that has fed 
and clothed him all his days — is an imperfect type of this 
atheism of the heart. Men say unto God, ^^ depart from 
us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways." *' A 
son honoreth his father, and a servant his master. If then 
I be a father, where is my honor ; and if I be a master, 
where is my fear, saith the Lord of Hosts." (Mai. i. 6.) 
And when once God is thus banished from the hearts 
of men as their supreme law, his place is occu- 

WhereGod . , , • r. • i i \ 

do<'s not rule, picd by innnitcly less worthy guests. It is 
authority evidently God's will that men should seek 

happiness from all around them. They have 
appetites and passions, faculties and affections ; and all 
are, within their proper limits, appropriate impulses to 



§ 3. MORAL AND PRACTICAL RESULTS. S3 

action, and means of enjoyment. Let these powers be 
exercised in due subordination to the will of the Creator, 
and the happiness of man is perfect. Passion is under the 
control of reason, and reason and passion obedient to God. 
But when the higher power is withdrawn, and God is 
banished from the heart, man becomes ^^ sensual, earthly, 
devilish.'' He fulfills ^'the desires of the flesh and of the 
mind ;'' he seeks the present, regardless of the future ; the 
temporal, to the neglect of the eternal. What is good in 
the lowest sense, and what is pleasant to the taste or eyes, 
not what is holy, or just, or true, becomes his first question. 
Appetite and unhallowed inclination take God's place. 
The highest motive ceases ; lower motives succeed to it ; 
sometimes sensual, sometimes social, but always earthly 
and selfish ; till at length the description of the Holy 
Ghost is a literal reality : ^' God looked down from heaven 
to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek 
God; . . . there is none that doeth good, no, not one." 
Ps. liii. 2. 

The next step in this downward progress is either posi- 
tive enmity against God, or a positive denial q^^ ^^ ^-^^^^^ 
of his character ; hatred, that is, or practical ^jg ch^actW^' 
atheism. Whatever change takes place in man, ^^^^e^- 
the law of God remains unchanged. Man has fixed his 
affection upon the creature instead of the Creator. The law 
of selfishness has taken the place of the law of love ; and 
in consequence, what is really lovely in God is not loved, 
but either abhorred or disowned. Poetical conceptions 
of the Creator may still be admired. The natural attri- 
butes of the true God may be studied with all the enthu- 
siasm which is excited by what is in the highest degree 
sublime ; but God's moral character is neither studied nor 
admired. It is either hated or disowned. Admit His 
omniscience, and it is hated, because it brings under its 
piercing inspection the secret recesses of our nature. 



34 INTRODUCTORY. 

Admit His holiness, and it is hated, because it is opposed 
to our sins. Admit His justice, and it is hated, because 
it will recompense to every man according to his works. 
Admit even his goodness, and it is hated, for it is goodness 
exercised under moral conditions, giving happiness only to 
the holy or the penitent. So long indeed as these attributes 
are restrained or controlled by the exercise of divine for- 
bearance, or so long as the feelings which exist in the 
heart are not made matter of reflection, this enmity of 
human nature may be concealed ; but once let God's true 
character appear and be pressed upon our thoughts, and 
the opposition of our character to his will shows itself in 
all its intensity. Our hearts are not hostile merely, they 
are hostility itself. Rom. viii. 1. Disown these attributes, 
and God himself is disowned. 

And this is the condition of our nature : selfish, seeking 
our personal happiness at any cost ; godless, obeying even 
God's law from no regard to Divine authority, cherishing 
towards Him no feelings such as become our relation to 
Him, and either hating His perfections, or seeking peace 
in denying them. 

Conceive this state as eternal. Suppose men to enter 
^ . .^.• the unseen world with this moral character 

Conceive this 

state as eternal, nnchaugcably Stamped upon them for ever; 
intelligent creatures knowing no law but passionate selfish- 
ness ; each seeking his own gratification at the expense of 
the happiness of the rest ; refusing to submit themselves to 
the law of God ; preferring the government of their cor- 
rupt nature, and given over to the government they have 
preferred ; at perpetual war with infinite holiness and good- 
ness—sustained, as those attributes are, by almighty 
power ; the knowledge of those attributes creating despair, 
that despair rendered the more agonizing by reproaches of 
conscience: and the awful result is selfishness, passion, 
enmity to holiness, growing daily and for ever more 



§ 3. MORAL AND PRACTICAL RESULTS. 35 

intense. Sucli is the destiny for which, if Divine grace 
prevent not, men are preparing. 

It is to counteract these tendencies, and to avert this 
destiny, that the gospel has been revealed. 

21. If we turn to Scripture and ask the consequence of 
this condition, we find it summed in one word — T^is state is de- 
it is ''death;" while, on the contrary, the sal- gcripturras 
vation of the gospel is described as ''eternal ^''^^^• 
life," through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Very impressive are these descriptions. Let us mark 
what they involve. (1) Men are sinners ; they j^ jg g^ jq ^^j, 
have broken the divine command, and have ^^"^^^^^ 
therefore incurred tlie penalty of transgression ; they are 
DEAD IN LAW. " The soul that sinneth it shall die," (Eze. 
xviii. 4.) is God's own sentence. The malefactor, who has 
been tried and found guilty of some capital offence, is, 
the moment his sentence is pronounced, in this condition. 
He is held to be dead in law. Thenceforth he can claim 
no rights ; he can exercise no civil function ; his property 
and life even belong to the State. There may be delay in 
the execution of the sentence and successive reprieves ; yet 
is he, in the certainty of his destiny, and in the denial of 
all present immunities, a dead man. So with sinners : 
*' As many as are of the works of the law are under the 
curse ; for it is written, cursed is every one that continueth 
not in all things which are written in the book of the law 
to do them." (Gal. iii. 10). "He that believeth not is 
condemned already ; because he hath not believed in the 
name of the only begotten Son of God." (John iii. 18.) (2) 
Men in this condition are dead to holy affections. The 
emotions of spiritual life are not known. As the blind man 
is dead to the beauty of color, and the deaf man to the 
harmonies of music, so is the sinner to all noble and divine 
feeling. Sin is not hated, nor is God loved. (3) Men are 
dead to righteousness. The law is holy, but they are 



36 INTRODUCTORY. 

'* carnal," sold under sin." They are ''not subject to the 
law of God, neither indeed can they be." The language 
of the inspired Apostle is emphatically true of them : that 
hich they allow not, they do, and what they would, they 
do not. (Rom. vii. 15.) Conscience may approve of Divine 
law ; but there is another law in their members warring 
against the law of their minds, and bringing them into cap- 
tivity to the law of sin. Even in the regenerate there are 
traces of this struggle ; but in them the new nature is ever 
victorious. In the unregenerate it is not the new nature 
which struggles, but conscience only. They are guilty and 
helplessly guilty ; as powerless for movements of holiness, as 
dead men are powerless for the movements of common life — 
a powerlessness of will confirmed by habitual transgression. 
And (4) to complete the idea involved in these terms. Men 
are dead to happiness. Sin always brings misery ; sin is 
misery; and sin unchecked brings misery as lasting and 
illimitable as are the obligations it has disowned. 

Such is man's natural state. He is dead in law — dead 

in the benumbing influence of depraved affection — dead in 

enfeebled powers — dead to the blessedness and purity in 

which he was created. Of this moral corrup- 

Death of the . i i i /. i , t . , ^ -, , 

body an em- tiou the death 01 the body is the emblem and 
result ; deeply significant, but representing only 
a small portion of the effects of human guilt, or of the 
punishment justly due to transgressors of a holy, per- 
fect law. 

28. Now, it is with reference to this four-fold aspect of 
sin, that the salvation of Christ presents itself 

The Gospel -, i i /^i . • \ . i . 

contemplates most clcarly to the Christian. As sm brings 
change called death, SO salvatiou brinp^s life : life in the can- 

life 

celment of the sentence of the broken law; 
for Christ has redeemed us from the curse; being made a 
curse for us : life in quickening our dead feelings by the 
regenerating influence of his Spirit through the truth : life 



§ 4. THE SCENE OF THE LABORS OF OUR LORD. 3Y 

in endowing us with the powers of spiritual obedience. 
By the same Spirit we are dead unto the law, that we may 
live unto God ; we live, and yet not we, but Christ in us, 
being made free from sin w^e have our fruit unto holiness, 
and the end, everlasting life ; and lastly, life in imparting 
eternal and unchanging joy. (Eph. ii. 1-5; Gal. ii. 19; 
Rom. vi. 22.) 

As the four-fold view of death is really one, so is this 
four-fold view of life. **The wages" ^. e. the The four-foid 
desert and the actual consequence **of sin is ^eTth^feafiy 
death," in all senses : and, in all senses, the o^®— so of iif«- 
gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
Every effect of sin is repelled by his suffering and righteous- 
ness. For condemnation he gives pardon ; for apathy or 
hatred, awakened or re-created love ; for the guilty corrup- 
tion of our faculties, the power of practical holiness ; for 
mourning and heaviness, the garments of praise, and, at 
last, eternal blessedness. In every case, indeed, the body 
dies. But with the sinner death is an evidence of its cor- 
ruption, and a type of his real spiritual condition. With 
the Christian, the body dies only in order that it may be 
renewed, not a *^ natural body, but a spiritual;" not ''in 
weakness, but in power." 

Sect. 4. — Palestine the Scene of the Labors of our 

Lord. 

29. Midway between England and India, the lands of 
Eastern luxuriance and of Western civilization, j^g geogra- 
lies one of the most remarkable countries of Sd^pe^cuiS 
the globe, Palestine, "^ — ^the land of the shep- *^^^- 
herds — so called from the pursuit of tribes who early 
peopled it. It is about two hundred miles long, and at 

* Palt-stan is the Sanscrit for land of the Shepherds, 

4: 



38 INTRODUCTORY. 

widest seventy miles broad, a small region, which at times 
reckoned more than five millions of inhabitants,* and now 
containing less than one-tenth of that number. Once it 
was the most beautiful country on the earth, and is now a 
desolation, hardly able to maintain the scattered population 
who occupy it. Its ancient inhabitants are a byeword on 
the earth. 

The geographical appearances of the region are also 
Shut in on all remarkable. It seems shut in on all sides. Its 
tildes. western boundary is the Great Sea, the sea on 

whose shores lie the mouldering remains of the ancient 
kingdoms of Egypt, of Greece, of Carthage, and of Kome. 
And yet that sea was never covered with the commerce of 
the Jews. On the southwest, ''as thou comest to Gaza,'* 
it is desert. On the south, a range of high hills and the 
barren sands of the Arabah forbid all access to the wilder- 
ness of Sinai, and the waters of the Red Sea. On the 
east, we have the sandy plains of Arabia, stretching away 
to the great river, ''the river Euphrates:" and, on the 
north, the bands, f of what was once the settlement of 
Asher, are still ^'iron and brass," a mountain chain ter- 
minating on the snow-capped summits of Lebanon. Horses 
and ships, (both those of the sea and those of the desert J) 
were alike forbidden to the inhabitants of this region, and 
it was clearly intended that they should live alone among 
the nations. 

* Western authorities have doubted whether a country so small could 
have maintained five millions of people, or five hundred to each square 
mile. Holland is nearly as populous; the W^est riding of Yorkshire is 
quite so ; but India supplies the completest reply. In its most fertile 
parts six hundred souls are found to a square mile ; and, even in the 
north-west provinces, the population to the square mile is between three 
and four hundred. 

f The more accurate rendering of Deut. xxxiii. 25. 

J The camel is called in Eastern speech, " the ship of the desert." 



§ 4. THE SCENE OF THE LABORS OF OUR LORD. 39 

And yet this region seems adapted to play no unimpor- 
tant part in the history of our race. It is nearly yjtted by posi 
in the centre of the ancient world, equally dis- AuencVother 
tant from the heart of Asia, of Africa, and of nations. 
Europe, and on the high road between them all. One of 
its plains has been a battle-field of successive armies, for 
more than 3000 years.* Assyrians and Persians, Persians 
and Greeks, Jews and Gentiles, Crusaders and Saracens, 
Egyptians and Turks, Arabs and Franks, have all fought 
here ; and here, in very recent times, a victory was gained 
by Bonaparte, which might have changed the destinies of 
the East. From this region have flowed the truths and 
precepts which have civilized and blessed the earth. All 
western nations look to it as the origin of their greatness, 
and Mohammed himself has extolled the religion for which 
it is illustrious : the religion of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob : 
the religion which was taught by the lips, and embodied in 
the life of the Son of God. All indeed that is commendable 
in the teaching of that false prophet is taken from those 
disclosures which the earlier religion of the people of this 
district had revealed. 

Nor is it uninteresting to glance over the surface of this 
region, and mark its peculiarities. Here, by the Represents an 
sea-board, lie the beautiful plains of Philistia <^i^°^^s- 
and Sharon ; and between the two ranges of hills, (the 
Eastern and Western Ghauts, as we may call them,) which 
run nearly parallel from north to south throughout the 
whole land, lies the valley of the Jordan, reaching from the 
sides of Lebanon to the Dead Sea. Beyond Lebanon 
again, the valley stretches away still northward (under the 
name of Coelo-Syria), to the very centre of Asia the Less. 
This mountain range of Lebanon, it may be noticed, rises 
to the height of 10,000 feet, and is covered, during most 

* The plain of Esdraelon or Megiddo, near Acre. 



40 INTRODUCTORY. 

part of the year, with snow. On its sides and at its base 
are found most of the productions both of the tropical and 
of the temperate zones. Near the summit are the cedar 
and fir. Higher still are the lichens and moss of the polar 
regions. Around the centre belt grow the oak and other 
hard woods of Europe, with corn and olives. Lower still 
is the vine ; and over Damascus and Palmyra may be still 
seen groves of the palm and the fig. Similar districts of 
hill and valley cover the whole country. Here in the north 
is the pasture-ground of Carmel, where the prophet Amos 
fed his flocks. Here near Jericho, the city of palm-trees, 
is perpetual Rummer. Everywhere there is enough to 
justify the hope that one day in seven, and even one year in 
seven, might be kept free from toil, and yet the people live 
in the midst of abundance. A careful observer, moreover, 
looking only at the surface of the country itself, would pro- 
nounce it the fitting residence of a hardy and prosperous 
race. It combines the bracing cold of Darjeeling with the 
fruitfulness of the alluvial districts of Bengal or Gujerat. 
Here may have lived a race who combined the qualities of 
the patriotic Swiss with those of the accomplished Greek, 
or the fortitude of the Affghan, with the softness and repose 
of the Bengali, the virtues of both without the vices of 
either. 

Of the unevenness of these regions, and the consequent 
variety of temperature and production, we may judge from 
the fact that this river, the Jordan, springs from hills 
whose base is more than 2000 feet above its final resting 
place in the Dead Sea, and the surface of that sea is nearly 
3000 feet lower than Jerusalem, though only twenty miles 
distant ; while Jerusalem itself is so surrounded by hills, 
as to be an emblem of the good; for '^ as the mountains 
are round about" it, ^' so the Lord is about them that fear 
him." 



§ 4. THE SCENE OF THE LABORS OF OUR LORD. 41 

30. Clearly if it had been one purpose of the Christian 
faith to foster a spirit of superstitious reverence 

for places, no country in the world would have lation to God's 
furnished richer materials than ''the land of 
the Bible." That faith is indeed almost as much superior 
to heathen systems in touching incident, historical associ- 
ations, and hoar antiquity, as it is in spiritual truth. It is 
in this region, this central spot of the earth, this temperate 
and tropical clime, this country of industry, of diligence, 
and of tempting repose, that we find the scenes of the life 
we are about to describe. The country is itself a micro- 
cosm, a picture of the world, and admirably fitted to be 
the theatre of facts destined to influence the condition of the 
whole human race. With this view it was at first chosen, 
for ''when the Most High divided to the nations their 
inheritance, ... he set the bounds of the people according 
to the number of the children of Israel." Dent, xxxii. 8. 
The selected family was placed there, that God might be 
the more readily exalted among the heathen, and at last 
known throughout the earth. 

31. It is instructive, too, to notice that it is to this 
region that the personal ministry of our Lord j^^ relation to 
was confined, though his Gospel was finally to ^^^^^^'^ work, 
be diffused throughout the earth. In his relation to our 
race of every kindred and of all lands, he is the second 
Adam ; yet he was born in that little land of promise, 
under the Mosaic law, within the range of a temporary 
and local covenant ; and to that land he restricted his 
ministry. He might have acted upon another principle. 
The same wisdom that in his boyhood confounded the 
doctors of his own nation might have been displayed, if 
he had chosen it, at an earlier age, and the holy child 
Jesus might have preached the gospel in that country 
where his kindred sought refuge. Endowing himself with 

the miraculous gifts which he reserved to celebrate the 

4* 



42 INTRODUCTORY. 

completion of his work and his ascension to his Father, he 
might have visited land after land, proclaiming to all man- 
kind in their own tongue the truths which he came to 
reveal. He might have been the first to carry the gospel 
to Rome, and have followed the profligate Tiberius to his 
retreat at Capreae, and have reasoned there on righteous- 
ness, and temperance, and judgment, till he, like an infe- 
rior ruler of a later time, had trembled on his throne. 
^' He might have anticipated the labors of his servant 
Paul, by bearing the news of the unknown God, and of 
the resurrection, to the philosophers at Athens. To the 
Roman people he might have declared himself the great 
deliverer, of whom their Yirgil had recently sung ; and the 
sages of Greece might have been compelled to own in him 
that heavenly teacher for whom their Socrates had longed ; 
and the nations of the East, then intently looking for the 
advent of a king whose dominion was to be a universal 
one, might have learned from our Lord's own lips the 
spiritual nature of that kingdom which they justly but 
blindly expected."* Instead of taking this course, how- 
ever, he remained in Judea ; nor, except during one visit 
to the coast of Tyre and Sidon, did his personal instruc- 
tions reach beyond the bounds of the promised land. It 
is evident that the primary object of his coming was not to 
teach the nations ; not so much, in fact, to reveal a gospel, 
as to act one ; to lay the foundation of those truths which 
his Apostles were afterwards to proclaim abroad. He was 
himself the truth, and in what he did and suffered the 
greater part, incomparably, of the work of human salvation 
was to be achieved. For a life of holy, quiet obedience, 
(and such was His as our example) it was essential that the 
Son of Man should neither strive nor cry, nor let his voice 
be heard in the streets. For a life of intense and mysterious 

* See Christ a Home Missionary j by Dr. Williams. 



§ 5. THE RECORD OF THE LIFE OF OUR LORD. 43 

suffering (such was His life as a substitutionary sacrifice) it 
was no less essential that he should move on a narrow 
stage : and, above all, was it essential that His life and 
death should be first accomplished, before the message of 
mercy, a message justified only by his suffering, should be 
communicated to the nations. The very restrictedness of 
his sphere, therefore, and the quiet, unostentatious charac- 
ter of his personal labors, are really among the evidences 
of the divinity of his mission. They are explained by the 
prominence which he himself attached to his death. It 
was the end of his life to die : and he left it to his Apostles 
after his death to carry the doctrines, of which that death 
was the embodiment and the foundation, throughout Judea, 
and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. 
Acts i. 8. 

Sect. 5. — The Gospels the Record of the Life of our 

Lord. 

32. The record of the life of Christ is found in the 
Gospels, a word meaning, in this connection. Meaning of the 
the record of good news, and corresponding *^^°^- 
exactly to the Greek term by which this portion of sacred 
Scripture is distinguished. At first the name was given 
to the message, which began to be given when the angels 
announced to the shepherds of Bethlehem that the Messiah 
was born. Afterwards it was given to the books in which 
the message is now contained. 

The writers were called, by a name borrowed from the 
Greek, Evangelists. 

33. These Gospels were written at different times, under 
the guidance of the Holy Spirit, by the men ^^6 Gospels 
whose names they bear. It was the object of phfes^fcut" me- 
the writers, not to give a complete history of °^^'^^- 

the Saviour's life, or of his miracles and discourses, but 
to record such facts and discourses as might explain the 



44 INTRODUCTORY, 

nature, and prove to different readers tlie Divine origin 
of the Christian faith. '' Many other signs^^ (miracles, that 
is, which give evidence of a Divine mission) *^ did Jesus in 
the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this 
book. But these are written that ye might believe that 
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God ; and that believing 
ye might have life through his name." John xx. 30, 31. 
The four books make, not a biography, but a memoir, and 
are yet adapted, by their unity and diversity, to give such 
a complete view of the life of our Lord as shall interest 
and instruct all classes of character in every age. 

34. The first Gospel by Matthew, or as Matthew viewed 

The Gospel by ^^^ ^^^ directed to record it {xata Mar^atoi/),* 

Matthew. ^g^g intended for pious Hebrews and for the 

Jews generally. The author therefore gives no explana- 
tion of Jewish customs, or of Jewish topography. He 
traces the genealogy of our Lord through his reputed 
father to Abraham, and shows how the New Testament is 
the fulfillment of the Old. He exhibits Christ chiefly in 
his earthly relations and character, as the Lawgiver and 
Teacher of the Church ; and his Gospel was sometimes 
called on this account, the earthly or material one. 

35. The Second Gospel was written at Rome, for the 
The Gospel by instruction of Romau converts. Jewish cus- 
Mark. ^^^g ^^^ placcs havc consequently explana- 
tions appended ; narrative is preferred to discourse ; and the 
writer dwells upon the actions rather than upon the teach- 
ing of our Lord. His Gospel is thoroughly practical ; and 
though he has added but twenty-four verses which are not 
found in the Gospels of Matthew or Luke, the whole is 
recast so as to be adapted to the energetic and practical 
habits of the Roman people. 

* Perhaps, however, this phrase is merely HeUenistic for tov Mar^at'ow. 



§ 5. THE RECORD OF THE LIFE OF OUR LORD. 45 

86. The third Gospel was written by Luke for the 
use of the Greeks. Here, again, Christ ap- ^he q^^^^i ^^ 
pears under another aspect ; not as the minis- ■^^^®- 
ster of the circumcision, which is his character in Matthew ; 
nor yet as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, his character in 
Mark ; but as the Saviour of the world. His genealogy 
is traced through his mother to Adam, the head of the 
whole human family. While Matthew speaks of the twelve 
Apostles who were sent to Israel, Luke speaks also of the 
seventy disciples, who were sent as to the nations of the 
earth. Several parables are found in this Gospel alone ; 
and among them ^' the Good Samaritan" and ^^ the Prodigal 
Son ;" the one humbling to Jewish pride, and the other 
cheering to the Gentile penitent. Jewish customs and 
chronological statements are made intelligible to a foreign- 
er ; while the fullness of the record of the discourses of 
our Lord meets the curiosity of the Grecian character. 

3T. In the fourth Gospel we have something that meets 
the higher speculative tendencies of men. This ^he Gospel by 
Gospel corrects much that was false in the ^^^^' 
Jewish and Grecian systems of religious philosophy, and 
completes what was deficient in previous revelations. None 
has spoken so fully as its author of the Divine character of 
our Lord, or of the inward spiritual life which springs 
from union with him. As Matthew's Gospel was called 
the material one, John's was called the spiritual or divine. 
Hence it is that his Gospel begins with a statement of the 
divine nature of the Word, by whom all things were made ; 
while among the last things it records is the confession of 
Thomas, which repeats in the twentieth chapter the truth 
which John had stated in the beginning of the first. In 
the other Evangelists the Saviour is represented as moving 
in the mournful majesty of his humiliation. Here, though 
there is much of humiliation, there is more of power. 
T/ie^ love to dwell on his relations to the earth: this 



4^ INTRODUCTORY. 

Apostle to proclaim his relations to Heaven. In reading 
Matthew and Luke and Mark, we might forget that in the 
humble teacher of Galilee we are listening to Him who 
was the Divine Word ; while in John the Manhood seems 
almost lost in the fullness of the God. 

38. Thus is it that the Gospel stands *' four square," 

with a side fronting each side of the spiritual 

All compared. -, n i -»«- i 

world and of human character. Matthew 
addresses the Jew, Luke the inquisitive Greek and men in 
every age. Mark shows the power and vital force of 
truth, and John its attractive and subduing love. Matthew 
exhibits chiefly the Jewish, and the human, John the 
spiritual and divine in our Redeemer; Mark, his official 
character; Luke, his personal history. In all combined 
we have not incongruity, but variety and fullness ; and 
everywhere Jesus is represented as the Messiah, the 
Teacher, the Pattern, and the God. 

It is quite consistent with these distinctions that the 
different Evangelists have each employed a peculiar dic- 
tion. 

39. Matthew quotes largely from the Old Testament; 

prefacing: his quotations bv the formula, *' Then 

Peculiarities of ^ ^-.^^ -, , , r^i • " -, , 

diction and was fulfilled," (or, This was done that there 
might be fulfilled) ^'that which was spoken by 
the prophet."* Jerusalem is called the Holy City. '' The 
Kingdom of heaven " is his common title for what is else- 
where called ^Hhe kingdom of God;" and '^our heavenly 
Father " is a phrase applied in Matthew to God much more 
frequently than in the other Gospels. 

Luke entirely avoids all Aramaean and Hebrew words, 

(such as ''Rabbi," ''Amen," &c.) ; speaks of the "Lake" 

of Tiberias, not of the Sea ; and connects in a remarkable 

ay mental acts with the heart, (Luke i. 66, iii. 15,) con- 

* Fully written in chap. i. 22, ii. 15, afterwards more briefly. 



§ 5. THE RECORD OF THE LIFE OF OUR LORD. 4T 

veying in this phraseology a great moral truth. '* Saviour'' 
and ''salvation'' are found only in Luke, except that they 
occur once in John. ^' Grace" (unmerited favor) is pecu- 
liar to Luke and John. '' To bring glad tidings" is fre- 
quently found in Luke, and but once in Matthew. The 
Law in Luke is not once named, as that word must have 
been, in the peculiar scriptural sense of it (Mosaic Law,) 
unintelligible to his readers. 

John has a large number of phrases which he uses in a 
deep Christian sense. '' The world," '' the flesh," '* death," 
*' life," ''the word," "the light," "the truth," "born of 
God," " to know," " to believe," " the Comforter," " to live 
in love," " to walk in light," &c., are employed with peculiar 
meaning, often both in a literal and in a figurative sense. 
These expressions, as used by the latest of the Evangelists, 
illustrate beautifully the gradual unfolding of Divine truth ; 
while they send us for the solution of much that appears 
mysterious in the teaching of our Lord to the disclosures 
of his Apostles. (John xvi.12-15.) 

40. In the following pages we intend to combine these 
views : now giving the facts in chronological ^^ combined 
order, and now grouping them together for ^^J^^J^^^^"^' 
the illustration and enforcement of religious embodhmfnt^of 
truth. The law of gradual development which, ^^^ *^"*^ ^"^^ 
rightly explained, pervades all the works of God, spiritual 
not less than physical, points also to the necessity of 
examining that life in its connection both with the past 
and the future. The Gospels include a Jewish element, 
are built upon Jewish history, authenticate themselves by 
Jewish prophecy, and proclaim their great object to be 
the fulfillment of Jewish types. We must therefore under- 
stand the ancient system of the Jewish people. They 
appeal also both to Jews, and to Greeks, and, through these 
nations, to all whom they represent. We must, therefore, 
understand the pride, the self-reliance, the spiritual igno- 



48 INTRODUCTORY. 






ranee, and the formality of the first class, and the prevalent 
philosophy of the second. Above all, these Gospels, con- 
tain, not so much the doctrine of Christ, as the facts on 
which that doctrine is based. And therefore we must 
compare the life with the religious system, the facts with 
the explanations of them which inspired men have supplied. 
Our theme, then, though it be the life of our Lord, is 
really the life of our Lord as the centre of the whole of the 
dispensations of God, the point to which all previous revela- 
tions converge, and whence light streams down to our own 
times. The Gospel may be called a biography ; but it is a 
biography that illustrates and harmonises all history, 
forms the basis of all evangelic truth, and sums up all pre- 
vious disclosures of the Divine will. It is a life, illimitable 
in duration, connection, and dependencies. The plans 
which it embodies were formed before the foundation of 
the earth ; and the victories it achieved are, in their influ- 
ence, everlasting. He is the Alpha and Omega, the 
beginning and the ending.* He is the subject of the first 
and of the latest promise, f He begins and closes both dis- 
pensations ; J and His work and honor will form the theme 
of an eternal song.§ 

41. But the life and character of Christ not only form 
of au excel- ^^^ substaucc of both dispensations, they are the 
lence. model of all excellence. It is a proof and a 

consequence of his Divine nature that his example is uni- 
versally applicable. As we have a many-sided Gospel for 
instruction, so we have a many-sided character as our pattern. 
Human examples are only partial exhibitions of virtue. 
They are moulded by circumstances, and fitted only for 
departments of daty. Hence it is impossible for one man 
to follow implicitly the footsteps of another, without some 

* Rev. i. 8. t Gen. iii. 15 ; Rev. xxii. 20. 

J Gen. i-iii ,• Mai. iii. iv. ; Matt i. ; Rev. xxii. 
g Rev. i. 5, 6 ; 2 Pet. iii. 18. 



§ 5. THE RECORD OF THE LIFE OF OUR LORD. 49 

deviations from that line of conduct wliicli the providence 
of God has assigned him. What was graceful in the 
human model, becomes forced and childish in the copy. 
But in imitating Christ no man is led out of his sphere. 
He is all mankind's epitome. Every movement after him 
is performed with ease, and His likeness sits becomingly 
on all who bear it. The rich and the poor, the contem- 
plative and the active, the gifted and the ungifted, men of 
every class and of all dispositions, find in Him the teaching 
they need ; and all are led, by looking to Him, into that 
path which is most suitable for them. He is the contrast 
of all that men should shun, and the perfection of all they 
should copy. Let the restless or active, who are tempted 
to embody all religion in practical devotedness, contemplate 
His nights of prayer. Let the indolent trace the progress 
of His labors of love. The high and lofty learn humility 
^hen they behold Him washing the feet of His disciples. 
The fastidious, when they see Him mingling freely with 
publicans and sinners, are taught to deny themselves for 
the sake of truth and usefulness. The poor learn content- 
ment from Him who had not where to lay His head ; the 
rich, benevolence in contemplating Him who was the 
unspeakable gift : and all see in Him the highest example 
brought low, and yet losing nothing of its perfectness. 
This many-sidedness is an evidence of His Divine nature, 
and it invests with a proportionate value the examination 
and study of His life. Not even the examples of inspired 
Apostles can supply, in this respect, the place of Christ. 
If we copy Paul, we shall be in danger of caricaturing his 
virtues, and shall certainly neglect the grace in which his 
character was deficient. If John be made our model, we 
shall excel in love, but not, probably, in strength. Both 
were defective copies of Christ ; and if we imitate them, 
our rule will be imperfect, and we shall lose the very prin- 
ciple to which they owed their excellences, their deter- 

5 



50 INTRODUCTORY. 

mination, namely to copy, not one another, but Christ 
Jesus their Lord. 

42. The importance which is thus seen to belong to the 
Christ's life pe- Gospels from their connection with the whole 
poitantfi^m ^^ ^^^ dispensations of God is increased by 
the times. ^|^g peculiar aspect of our times. In the days 
of Luther the Epistles formed the battle-ground of the 
faith ; and the doctrinal significance of the Gospels was 
the chief subject of inquiry and discussion. Men admitted 
the facts, but overlooked or denied the inferences which 
inspired Apostles drew from them. Now, on the contrary, 
it is not so much the inferences which are denied, as the 
facts themselves. Foiled in their attempts to subvert the 
truths of one part of Scripture, the enemies of Christianity 
have gathered up their broken weapons, and assail an- 
other; No Christian, no man of intelligence, can fear the 
result. But we must follow the foe to the field he has 
chosen. It is not the doctrines of the Gospel which are 
now directly assailed, but the facts on which these doc- 
trines rest. Neither are outposts of our faith. Both are 
vital ; but the facts are in one respect the more important. 
An objective religion is essential to a subjective one ; facts 
to feelings ; and historical to doctrinal truth. The one is 
the basis of the other ; and if the foundation be destroyed, 
what shall the righteous do ? 

Nor is it only as Christians we use this language. 
Lord Bacon, as a philosopher, calls Theology the haven 
of all sciences. More pointedly Madame de Stael affirms, 
that the history of the world resolves itself entirely into 
two periods — that which preceded Christ's appearance, 
and that which followed it. John Von Muller, .the dis- i 
tinguished German historian, holds the same language, i 
Animadverting on Herder's Philosophy of History, he • 
says justly : " I find every thing here but Christ ; and \ 
what is the history of the world without Christ ?" In 



§ 5. THE KECORD OF THE LIFE OF OUR LORD. 51 

fact, all God's works, both in nature and in providence, 
looked forward to the life of our Lord, or have been influ- 
enced by it, and rightly to understand their lessons, we 
need rightly to understand and appreciate Him. Christ, 
in his character and cross, supplies the only element ade- 
quate to the solution of the great problems presented in 
the history of our race. 



1 



CHAPTER II, 



§ 1. Events connected with the birth and childhood 
OF OUR Lord. 

§ 2. Christ perfect Man and perfect God. 

§ 3. The Fullness of Time. 

§ 4. State of the Jews when the Messiah appeared. 



(53) 



A HARMONY OF THE GOSPELS. 



EVENTS CONNECTED WITH THE BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD 
OF OUR LORD. THIRTEEN YEARS AND A HALF. 



Scripture. 


Place. 


Narrative. 


Miracle. 


Discourse. 


Farable. 


Matt. 


Luke. 








i. 1-4 




Preface to St. Luke's Gospel. 




i. 5-25 


Jerusalem. 


An angel appears to Zechariah. 




i. 26-38 


Nazareth. 


An angel appears to Mary. 




i. 39-56 


Jutta ? 


Mary visits Elizabeth. 




i. 57-80 


Jutta ? 


Birth of John the Baptist. 


i. 18-25 




Nazareth. 




An angel appears to Joseph. 




ii. 1-7 


Bethlehem. 




The birth of Jesus. 




ii. 8-20 


Near Beth. 




An angel appears to Shepherds. 




ii. 21-38 


Beth. Jerus. 


Jesus circumcised and presented in the Temple. 


ii 1-12 




Jerus. Beth. 


The Magi. 


ii. 13-23 


ii. 39, 40 


Beth. Nazar. 


The flight into Egypt The return. 




ii. 41-52 


Jerusalem. 


Jesus goes to the Passover. 


i. 1-17 






Genealogy to Abraham thro' David and Joseph. 




iii. 23-38 




Genealogy to Adam through David and Mary. 



(54) 



I 



CHAPTEE IL 



Sect. 1. — ^Events connected with the Birth and 
Childhood of our Lord. 

1. Our history begins with the Gospel of Luke. True 
to his principle of tracing the history of events completeness 
from their source,* he only of the Evangelists peifandnatu- 
gives account of the birth of John, the fore- ^^^^^^^s. 
runner of our Lord, and of the occurrences which, even 
before his birth, united him and our Lord together in mys- 
terious union. 

In the very opening sentence we have characteristic 
remarks. Luke addresses his friend^ tells him of his 
acquaintance with the things of which he is about to 
write, as no other evangelist does ; thus bringing some- 
thing of the style of a human composition to his holy task. 
He appears with the faculties and affections of a man, 
exercised with the things that engaged his thoughts, and 
addressing another in the same earthly strain. But, though 
his words assume this tone, the Holy Spirit is as simply 
and as fully in every thought, as if the writer 
had been entirely dependent upon his teaching, rai, not the less 
Our Lord in his own person delivered com- 
mands to his Apostles, and yet he is said to have given 
them through the Spirit, f The Berseans were more noble 
than the men of Thessalonica, and, giving heed to the mes- 
sage spoken by the Apostles, examined the Scriptures to 

* h'wQev napaKo\ovO€Tv, — Luke i. 3. f Acts i. 2. 

r55) 



56 CHAPTER II. 

ascertain its truth ; and therefore^ it is said, they believed ; 
though elsewhere, both the attention which men exercise, 
and the faith in which it ends, are ascribed to God. Divine 
teaching has but seldom superseded human effort ; and 
where God's grace most abounds, it abounds ^'in all wis- 
dom and prudence." 

2. The simplicity and naturalness of the following verses 
Birth of John ^^^ remarkably impressive. They give notice 
and of Christ. ^^ ^j^g ^m^ of rcvelatiou which is at hand. 
'' There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a 
certain priest." No pompous introduction, no startling 
announcement is here. All is calm, natural, and severely 
chaste, though the theme might have justified the most 
elaborate preparation. 

The birth and parentage of John are first recorded. 
The scene is laid in the midst of human sympathies such 
as Luke loves to describe. In due time John is born, 
through the special gift of God endowing his parents with 
a natural faculty : then Jesus is born, the Son of God ; 
not through any endowment of nature, but by the influence 
of the Creator Spirit, a miracle from the first ; the one the 
child of a barren woman, the other of a virgin ; both fore- 
told at least four hundred years before they appeared, the 
one as the morning star, the other as the day ; the one as 
the prophet of the Highest, the other the Highest himself. 

3. Considering man's guilt and God's majesty, the ad- 

Joy at Christ's "^^^^ ^^ ^ ^r^^ ^^ ^^^ WOrld might haVC been ex- 
advent, pected to be a season of awe. And a season 
of awe it is, but of awe full of gladness ; such emotion 
being represented in Scripture as attending the Blessed God 
whenever he comes forth out of his place — awe only to his 
enemies, but to them that wait for him awe and gladness 
combined. The foundations of the first creation were laid 
vath shouts of joy, and the sons of God sang together. The 
foundations of the new heaven and the new earth are here 



§ 1. THE BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD OF OUR LORD. 57 

laid, and all is gladness again. ^^ Glory and honor are in his 
presence, strength and gladness in his place." 1 Chr. xvi. 21, 
The angels celebrate his praise : devout shepherds, hardly 
catching the meaning of the strain, repeat the song. The 
lips of Mary, and Zechariah, and Elizabeth, are unsealed ; 
the expectation of Simeon is answered ; the widowhood of 
Anna is blest ; and the very babes leap for joy. Young 
men and maidens, old men and children, all bless the Lord 
together, and all exalt his name. This joy may soon be 
hushed in tears, and these children may be for the falling 
of many in Israel ; but, so far as God is concerned, his 
work is perfect. Its final issue, moreover, will certainly 
be glorious ; and, therefore, though the angels come to 
announce the advent of an infinitely holy Being to a world 
that was ruined and fallen, they come ^' singing * Glory to 
God in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will towards 
men ;' -' and the shepherds return the song, glorifying and 
praising HIdi for all they had heard and seen.'^ 

4. Even thus early, however, the difference between the 
master and the servant appears. John was Difference be- 
welcomed as he that was to ^'prepare the way runnVan(uS 
of the Lord." Christ, who was as to his per- ^^^siah. 
sonality Jesus, and as to his dignity and office the Christ, 
the Anointed One, is the Lord himself. John was great 
in his spiritual endowments, and in his relation to the Sa- 
viour. Christ was great as the Son of God, and as heir 
of a kingdom without end — not earthly and temporal, 
therefore, but spiritual and eternal, (i. 15, lY, 33.) John 
gives but the knowledge of salvation ; salvation itself is 
the gift of Christ, (i. 32, '71, 77.) In their origin espe- 
cially were they distinguished. John was the child of 
natural faculty ; Jesus is born through the creative power 

* See Lectures on the Gospel of St. LuTce, Loudon, 1848 ; a beautiful 
exposition of this Gospel. 



58 CHAPTER II. 

of the Most High.* Such was their relation to one 
another. They were united in the mystery of their birth, 
but, so far as we know, had little or no intercourse again ; 
nor perhaps did they meet till both appeared amid other 
scenes, and in fulfillment of the solemn office to which God 
had called them. 

5. Already, too, is the nature of the salvation which 
Salvation ai- Christ is to sccurc disclosed. It is to interest 
ready defined, jjeaygj^ ^ud earth. God and angelic beings 
are concerned in its results. It fulfills a previous dispen- 
sation ; for it is the substance of that mercy which was re- 
vealed in type unto the fathers (ver. 55, 12.) Its fruits 
are the deliverance of the church of God from all that hate 
her, that she may serve him in holiness and righteousness 
all her days ; redemption from sin,*j" and the extension of 
these blessings to all nations. This last fact is remarkable 
and peculiar. The Magnificat of Mary is the expression 
of thankfulness for personal favor. The Song of Zechariah 
celebrates personal mercy, and regards Christ only as the 
national deliverer. But the Nunc dimittis of Simeon re- 
cognizes in him a light to lighten the Gentiles j\ as well as 
the glory of his people Israel. This Gospel then is clearly 
a system of universal truth, at once redeeming and sancti- 
fying all who receive it. Most appropriately, therefore, 
though the Jews first heard the tidings of the Advent, the 
first act of worship was paid by Gentiles ; whose gifts 
proved a providential supply to the holy family when 
escaping from the jealous hatred of Herod, the head of 
the Jewish nation. (Matt. ii. 11-13.) 

* Note> TTVfDjua ayiov^ equals here Swafxig 'XipiaTov • an interpretation re- 
q.uired by other passages of Scripture, which represent Christ as the Son 
of the Father, not of the Spirit; and favored both by the absence of the 
article and by the parallelism of the verse. 

f See Luke ii. 38 ; Matt. i. 21. 

J e^vr], \aos J the first the name of those who were not the chosen people 
of God. 



§ 1. THE BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD OF OUR LORD. 59 

6. There is something instructive too in the character of 
those who were selected as witnesses and agents Wisdom as 
in these scenes. Things heavenly and things ^^^^^^y' in^'lt 
earthly are blended; priests and women, the agency em- 
poor carpenter the reputed father of our Lord, ployed. 
and the poor shepherds, all bear their part ; and the tender 
mercy of God, which only could have accounted for such 
a revelation even if kings and princes had received it, is 
rendered doubly illustrious through the temporal condition 
of those to whom it was first given. And yet ^'the secret 
of the Lord is with them that fear him.'' The character 
of the great Teacher, no less than his condescension, are 
seen in the agents he employed. Eve fell through unbe- 
lief, and under its influence hoped to become like God. 
Mary believed^ and under the influence of faith doubted not 
that God would become like men. Zechariah was a man 
of prayer, (i. 13.) Elizabeth recognized in the babe Christ 
her Lord, and with her husband had been previously walk- 
ing in the ordinances and commandments of God blameless. 
(44.) Joseph was a. Just man ; and Simeon just and de- 
vout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, It is difficult to 
tell which fact is the more significant — that those whom 
God thus favored were not among the noble and mighty, 
or that the qualities which he honored were holiness and 
faith. 

T. The growth of Christ in stature and in wisdom is 
noticed here, and here only. Luke ii. 39-52. Christ as a 
These glances at his childhood are all touch- ^^"^• 
ing, and in keeping with the character of this Gospel ; for 
thus the man is kept before us. His wisdom first appeared 
in the robe of humility. He heard and asked questions ; 
surprising his hearers not by profound discourses unsuited 
to his years, but by his ' answers.' Already he was about 
his Father's business, though still subject to Mary and 
Joseph. He is tlie anointed child now, as by and bye he 



60 CHAPTER II. 

will be the anointed man ; in each season equally pleasing 
to God, consecrating to Him and to His laws every period 
of human life, in favor with God as well as with man. 
This description, though sufficient to set forth Christ, as a 
highly instructive pattern to the young in humility, in filial 
obedience, and in piety, suggests, by its very brevity, that 
the inspired author of the Gospel wrote under sacred con- 
trol. Such a history as Xenophon has given of the youth 
of Cyrus ; or as the early apocryphal biographies have 
given of our Lord, is much more in accordance with the 
natural tendency of the human mind ; and but for inspira- 
tion, such a history the Evangelist would have written. 
8. This history of the birth of Christ ends with his 
lineage. Nor are the tables given by the two 

His Genealogy, -nr ■, tti ...« 

and what it in- Evaugelists, Matthew and Luke, msignmcant ; 

Tolved. 

the latter table tracing up his parentage 
through Mary to David and Adam, and the former through 
his reputed father Joseph to David and Abraham. 

The appearance of the Messiah among the human race 
presupposes conditions both negative and positive : nega- 
tive, that man needed redemption ; and positive, that the 
Messiah must be obviously connected with the racCj and 
not a portion separated from it. A double connection, with 
the ancient favored people of God and with the whole 
human family, was essential ; and this connection is estab- 
lished here by such evidence as no other family records can 
produce. The genealogy, comprising three times fourteen 
generations on the father's side, and seventy-five genera- 
tions on the mother's, extends over a period of two thousand 
and four thousand years respectively. The construction 
of such tables in an uninterrupted line, and relating to 
families that dwelt for a long time in retirement, would be 
inexplicable, had not their members an ultimate object of 
faith before them, which rendered the preservation of the 
lineage of deepest interest. It was foretold that the 



§ 1. THE BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD OF OUR LORD. 61 

Messiah was to be born from the race of Abraham and of 
David. The ardent desire to behold him, and to become 
identified with his mercy and glory, kept up attention to 
these records through a period embracing thousands of 
years. Each successive head of the lineage thus became 
easily distinguishable, and his presence and name kept alive 
the hope of a final fulfillment of the ancient predictions, 
till that hope was realised in the person of our Lord. If 
Messiah be the life of the world, we trace the first veins of 
that life in Adam. If he be the blossoming of human 
nature, we can trace its development from the very root. 
This connection with the race, and with the chosen family 
of the race, is thus not only the fulfillment of a prophecy : 
it has a deep spiritual meaning. He is a brother of us all ; 
partner of our weakness and nature, bone of our bone, and 
flesh of our flesh — the true Kinsman-Kedeemer of men. 

Sect. 2. — Christ perfect Man and perfect God. 

9. Very noticeable is the language of Scripture on the 
twofold condition of the Messiah. He was Christ's two- 
man, and he was God : man, with all his pecu- ^^id nature 
liarities and weakness, (though without sin ;) and God, 
with all his dignity and perfections. 

10. He was man. So he is called. Scripture speaks 
of him as ^'a man of sorrows;'' as ''a man Man in name 
approved of God;" as ^'the one Mediator ^^^ 
between God and man, the man Christ Jesus." With 
touching condescension he calls himself by a name which 
his Apostles never employ, ''the Son of Man." The 
whole story of his life represents him with the form and 
features of our nature. In our likeness he was found, 
and in our image he was fashioned. 

The properties of man are ascribed to him. He was 
hungry and thirsty, was weary, and rested and 

. ^ '^ ^ ^ in properties. 

slept ; he was subject to trials and pain ; he 



62 ^ CPI AFTER II. 

was grieved, and wounded, and pierced ; he ('.^eA and was 
buried. 

He sustained human relations. He was the Son of 
Mary, the friend of Lazarus, and '' the brother'' 

in relations. . -, ^ i ' \ o -r 

(certainly the relative) oi James. 
He had the mind of man. By study of the Scriptures, 
and under the special teaching of the Holy 

in faculty. 

Spirit, he ^^ increased in wisdom." He gained 
his knowledge of the works of God, and of the mysteries 
of that spiritual kingdom to which they all belonged, as a 
man. His was a human judgment, and a human memory, 
and a human imagination. He was indeed without sin ; but 
in every thing besides he became flesh, and was made 
*^like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and 
faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make 
reconciliation for the sins of the people." 

11. But HE WAS God also. ILe existed and acted before 
he came in the flesh.* ^^ All things were made 
by him."f He had glory with the Father 
*' before the world was. "J He '' came down from heaven. "§ 
He was rich before he was poor. || To take the form of a 
servant, he ^/emptied or divested himself of his glory. "^ 
The whole tenor of these passages implies previous dignity, 
and they would be unmeaning if he were man only. 

Divine attributes are everywhere ascribed to him in 
Scripture. He is the '^Everlasting Father," ''the begin- 
ning and the ending, who was, and who is, and who is to 
come, the Almighty." He "upholds all things by the 
word of his power." He is "able to subdue all things 
unto himself." He knows all things. He searches the 
heart, he tries the thoughts of men. He is the only wise 



* John viii. 58. f John i. 3. J John xvii. 5. 

f John vi. 38. || 2 Cor. viii. 9. f Phil. ii. 6. 7. 



§ 2. CHRIST PERFECT MAN AND PERFECT GOD. 63 

God our Saviour," to whom be glory for ever.* He has 
LIFE in himself, and is ever present with his church. 
*' Where two or three are gathered together in his name, 
there is he in the midst of them.^f 

He is called by the name of God in the New Testament, 
and by the incommunicable name of Jehovah in the Old. 
*' The Word (the utterance, that is, of infinite wisdom) was 
God." Of the Jews Christ came, and he ^'is over all, God 
blessed for ever." We wait for his coming, the ^' appearing 
of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ." 
On the very charge of making himself equal with God he 
was condemned. He, therefore, ^Ms the true God and 
eternal life. "J 

12. It is under this double character that we mark the 
following peculiarities in his life. The inspired statements ex- 
writers attribute to him all human properties twclfoidnl-^^^ 
and relations, such even as seem at first sight *"^^- 
inconsistent with his Godhead. He was tempted, he 
prayed, he was heard in that he feared ; with strong crying 
and tears he presented his petitions ; he was troubled in 
spirit ; he had angels to comfort him ; he had limited 
knowledge, for he knew not the time of the day of judg- 
ment. With startling simplicity are all these facts re- 
corded : and it can hardly excite surprise that reverence 
for his dignity, though in this case falsely applied, has 
attempted in every age to modify the form, or to soften 
the meaning of the terms in which these truths have been 
conveyed. 

Let no Christian, however, scruple to employ these 
expressions, or to give them their appropriate meaning. 

* Isa. ix. 6; Rev. i. 8; Phil. iii. 21; Heb. i. 3; John xxi. 17; 
Jude 25 J Rev. ii. 23. 

t Matt xviii. 20 ,• xxiii. 28 ; John v. 26. 

t John i. 1; Rom. ix. 5; Tit. ii. 13; 1 John v. 20. For the Old 
Testament see Gen. xvi. 7, 13; Hos. xii. 4, 5; Is. xl. 3; (John i. 23;) 
Mai. iu. 1; (John ui. 28;) Isa. vi. 1—10; (John xii. 41.) 



64 CHAPTER II. 

What may seem to be gained by restricting them, will be 
lost in the diminished fitness of Christ for his office as our 
Sacrifice and Advocate ; in the unintelligibleness of the 
evangelical history ; the introduction of a partial system 
of interpretation, and the exaltation of human reason above 
the plain and obvious import of Scripture. Such passages 
contain a truth as precious as it is obvious, as consolatory 
as it is ennobling. He stooped to our nature, that he 
might make us partakers of his own. 

It is a natural result of the dignity of his character, and 
Acts as God in Indeed an evidence of it, that he wrought 
his own name, jj^iraclcs iu Ms owu uamc, claimed God-like 
authority in all his teaching, and received with acceptance 
the Divine honors that were paid him. With authority 
and power he commanded the unclean spirits, and they 
came out. He rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, 
'^ Peace, be still ; and the wind ceased, and there was a 
great calm :'' an act of power which the Jews regarded 
as appropriate only to Jehovah, and which drew from the 
disciples the confession, '^ Of a truth thou art the Son of 
God." The prayer of the leper was, *' Lord, if thou wilt, 
thou canst make me clean,'' and the reply of our Lord, 
*' I will ; be thou clean." *' The Son," said he, on another 
occasion, ^'quickeneth whom he will." So fully did he 
identify himself with Him whose counsel shall stand, 
and who will do all his pleasure. In marked contrast is 
the language of the Apostles, who speak uniformly in terms 
of delegated authority. *^I command thee," said Paul, 
*' in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, to come out of 
her."* 

When he ascended, he gave gifts to men. He granted 
signs and wonders to be done by the hands of Paul and 
Barnabas. His name, through faith in his name, made 

* Mark iv. 39; Matt. viii. 2, 3; John v. 21; Acts xvi. 18. 



§ 2. CHRIST PERFECT MAN AND PERFECT GOD. 65 

the lame man strong. ^' JEneas," said Peter on another 
occasion, ^' Jesus Christ maketh thee whole.''* 

Nor less striking is his reception of Divine honor. He 
wrought miracles that he himself might be Receives divine 
glorified by them,f while the Apostles dis- ^°°°^s- 
claimed both the power and the praise ; and when the peo- 
ple were about to offer sacrifices to them for miracles they 
had wrought, ''they rent their clothes, and ran in among 
the crowd, crying out and saying. Sirs, why do ye these 
things ? We also are men of like passions with you." 

Concerning Christ, moreover, it is said that angels w^or- 
shipped him. J The Apostles testified that they beheld his 
glory, as the glory of the Only Begotten of the Father, full 
of grace and truth. § Thomas addressed him as ''my Lord 
and my God;" and Jesus spoke of this language as the 
utterance of faith simply, and pronounced all others blessed 
who, without the same evidence, should express like con- 
yiction. He commanded his disciples to baptize (not, 
surely, in the name of God, and of man, and of an attri- 
bute, but) in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and 
of the Holy Ghost. He forgave sins, and received homage 
for the bestowment of such grace. As he was taken up to 
heaven, the Apostles worshipped him ; and they besought 
him when in glory, as he knew the hearts of men, to show 
whom he had chosen in the room of Judas. Stephen in- 
voked his name as he fell asleep, and said, "Lord Jesus, 
receive my spirit." Paul sought his help for the removal 
of a thorn in the flesh, and Christ heard and relieved him, 
not by fulfilling the letter of his prayer, but by higher 
communications of strength. Repeatedly the inspired 
writers of the Epistles beseech him to comfort and estab- 
lish the churches, to direct the path of his servants, to 
give grace and love to those who believed ; and as fre- 

* Acts ix. 33. t *^^^^ xi- t ^e^- i- ^' 

J John i. 14. ^ 



66 CHAPTER II. 

quently do they ascribe dominion, and honor, and glory, 
and power ''to Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto 
the Lamb for ever and ever." Such, too, is the song of 
the heavenly hosts.* Christ is evidently the theme of 
adoration in heaven and on earth. 

Let these facts, with the whole tenor of Scripture, be 
studied. Let it be remembered that they are recorded in 
a volume which condemns all idolatry, and most of which 
was addressed to a people who expected a Messiah, that 
was to be honored equally with the Father ; and the con- 
clusion is irresistible that Christ was not man only, but 
man and God gloriously and mysteriously combined. Deny 
either truth, and the language of Scripture becomes con- 
tradictory or unintelligible. 

13. It is a natural consequence of this double character, 
that some things are ascribed in Scripture to 

Apparent in- . i . , ■» n ^t • 

consistencies Christ generally, which are true only of Christ 
as human; and that others are ascribed to 
Christ which are true only of Christ as Divine ; while, for 
most of his work he needed both natures. 

Nor let the first of these facts excite surprise. There is 
much analogous to it in the language of common life. Man 
is constituted of body and mind. In every human being 
these two opposite principles are so united as to form but 
one person. The peculiar properties of each remain un- 
changed, and the acts of each are ascribed to both. We 
say with equal propriety that man walks, or thinks, or 
moves, or loves ; though one set of these acts belongs pro- 
perly to the body, and the other to the soul. Even when 
the terms we employ are direct contraries, we never hesi- 
tate to use them in describing the complex man. It is 
equally true that he is mortal and immortal — that he is 

* John XX. 2S; Matt, xxviii. 19; Luke vii. 47, 48; xxiv. 52; Acts i. 
24; vii. 59; 2 Cor. xii. 8, 9; Heb. xiii. 21; 2 Pet. iii. 18; Rev. i. 5, 6; 
V. 13. 



§ 2. CHRIST PERFECT MAN AND PERFECT GOD. 67 

corporeal and spiritual. The sentence of God to our first 
parents creates no misgiving — ''Dust thou art, and unto 
dust thou shalt return :" we still apply it to man, though 
it is fulfilled only in the history of the body ; a far difi*erent 
destiny awaits the soul. And as in man we have two dis- 
tinct elements, matter and spirit, so in Christ we have the 
human nature — body and soul — in union with the Divine : 
the human in all its weakness, though without sin ; and the 
Divine in all its dignity and perfection. 

This analogous case may help us to understand many 
passages in the life of our Lord ; while it serves to recon- 
cile apparent contradictions which some in forgetfulness of 
it have seemed to discover in the sacred page. 

14. Most, however, of the statements of Scripture con- 
cerning Christ are true of him in both charac- 
ters. In the work, for example, of his media- ws nature 

. . . ., T 1 . T /. 1 . needed for most 

tion, it IS impossible to separate the idea of his of his work of 
Divine perfection from that of his humanity. 
As Mediator he was God, but God '' manifest in the flesh.'' 
We see his humiliation, for he was the partner of our 
weakness. But to form a just conception of his office, w^e 
need to remember the infinite condescension that assumed 
it. As our Friend and Priest, he is a brother man. But 
a true conception of either character involves the recogni- 
tion of the homage that is due to him as God over all, an 
Almighty Friend, a spotless Priest. We confide at once 
in his sympathy and power, in his meekness and majesty, 
in his Divinity and humanity. His very nature, in fact, 
fills the wide interval between the Creator and the creature, 
and unites both. His person is thus a symbol of his works, 
and sets forth at once the means and the end of our salva- 
tion. Thus it is, that in contemplating every part of his 
office, faith, and gratitude, and holy reverence, are com- 
bined. The fear of his eternal power and Godhead is 



68 CHAPTER II 

strangely blended with the emotions which are excited by 
attributes of his character allying him to ourselves. 

15. This double truth is beautifully illustrated in the 

^^ titles given Him in Scripture, '*Son of man/' 
and "Son of and '' Son of God." The first indicates his 
condescension, his sympathy, and his relation 
to ourselves ; its full force depending, however, on the 
second, 'Hhe Son of God.'' If we use one phrase only, 
each is robbed of its emphasis, and of most of its interest. 
Using both, so as to combine and contrast them, we make 
them doubly significant. The meaning of the Jirst we have 
seen ; what then is involved in the second ? Clearly, com- 
paring the passages indicated below, it may be affirmed 
that he is so called on account of the divine agency put 
forth in his conception ;* the peculiar love and favor which 
the Father bears him ;f his most perfectly filial temper ;J 
his possession of the Divine nature ;§ his conformity to the 
Divine will;|| his title to inherit the kingdom of the Fa- 
ther ;^ and, in one word, on account of his character, 
nature, and office, as the appointed King, and Prophet, 
and Priest of the Church.** He is therefore Son of God 
and Son of Man. God-man in one person for ever : the 
precious bond of union between the criminal and the judge, 
between heaven and earth, between our fallen state and our 
restoration to more than primeval purity and bliss. 

16. Nothing is easier than on such a question to mul- 
Theoriesofthe ^^J words without knowledge, and to specu- 
natu^efin'^'' 1^^® ^^ ^^^ V^^^^ of l^^w three are one, and one 
Christ. jg three. Many eminent names have lent their 
sanction to such speculations. Augustine illustrated the 
whole doctrine by supposing that the Divine nature is like 

* Luke i. 35. f Matt. iii. 17. J John v. 30 ; Matt. xxvi. 39. 

2 John xix. 7; x. 30. || John v. 19; viii. 28. 

% John V. 22, 23 ; iii. 35. 

^^* Actsxiii. 32, 33 j John i. 14; John x. 33-36; Heb. v. 5. 



§ 2. CHRIST PERFECT MAN AND PERFECT GOD. 69 

the three faculties of the mind — the memory, the under- 
standing, and the will. Melancthon held that God from 
his infinite understanding produces thought, and that to 
this thought (which bore his image) he imparted person- 
ality, and that this personality is his Son. ''God," says 
another eminent writer, ''God reflecting on and conceiving 
himself, is God the Father. God conceived as his own 
most glorious image, is God in the person of his Son. God 
enjoying himself as his own chiefest good, in relation to 
the Father and the Son, is God the Holy Ghost."* 
Others, including many of the earlier writers of the Church, 
held that the Son is God of God, and that he has the same 
Divine nature as the Father, but that he received it by com- 
munication from him. Others still (including the whole 
sect of the Sabellians) taught that God is one Being only, 
and that there is no distinction of persons in the Godhead 
at all. On this theory, it is the same God exhibiting him- 
self under different aspects. As God the Creator, he is 
the Father ; as God the Redeemer, he is the Son ; as God 
the agent of illumination and holiness, he is the Holy 
Ghost. 

IT. Now, without attempting to point out how far these 
theories are true or false, it may be said that 

, Contrasted 

they all contain somethmg which is theory with scripture 
only. In many respects they are remarkably 
analogous to speculations which have been entertained both 
in ancient Greece and in modern India. But in the very 
spirit and form they assume, they stand out in strong con- 
trast to the simple teaching of the Bible. The world was 
ruined by sin ; a broken law needed to be upheld ; life and 
immortality, the very hope of which had become nearly 
extinct, had to be brought to light ; provision was to be 
made for man's pardon and holiness ; for pardon on princi- 
ples of justice, and for holiness with due regard to his im- 

* Dr. Chauncy. 



to CHAPTER IT. 

perfection. To meet these conflicting claims, God the 
Father, whose law had been broken, too just to pass by 
transgression, yet unwilling to inflict the penalty upon the 
sinner, sent his beloved Son. That Son, the object of 
universal adoration, took upon him the form of a servant ; 
became obedient to that law which we had dishonored ; 
exhausted the penalty which we had incurred ; and, after a 
life of holy beneficence and suffering, died for our sins, rose 
again, and now reigns on high, gives eternal life to all who 
believe and honor him, and is the Judge of all. This Sa- 
viour possesses the attributes of the Godhead, and is to be 
honored even as the Father. He possesses also our nature. 
By it he became capable of death. From it, quickened by 
the Divinity, proceed mysterious influences to his Church. 
With it he pleads before the Father. To it all his people 
ai:e to be conformed, and in it he will rule for ever ; dis- 
pensing the terrors of his judgment, and the treasures of 
his love. 

The bearing of these facts on the subject of our enquiry 
will presently appear. They are stated thus broadly at the 
outset, that they may guide and tinge the thoughts of both 
writer and readers. It is the history of the God-man we 
are about to investigate and describe. 

Sect. 3. The Fullness of Time. 

18. It may be gathered from what has already been ad- 
vanced, that the design of the coming of 
Christ's com- Christ was most noble. Man had fallen. 
*°^' Placed under a righteous law, in a state of 

probation at once merciful and just, he had chosen sin and 
broken the law. He was therefore under its curse. Sin 
had brought fear, and fear had excited hostility, and hos- 
tility had fostered ignorance, and all combined had deep- 
ened his misery and aggravated his guilt, till God was 
entirely forgotten, and human life had become a scene of 



§ 3. THE FULLNESS OF TIME. 11 

mourning and woe." This ruin Christ came to restore, 
revealing God not as Judge only, but as Saviour; offering 
a full, free, and universal pardon, and imparting to as 
many as believe and obey his gospel, purity, holiness, and 
eternal life. 

19. This was his design. But a question arises. How 
comes it that this way of salvation was not Delay of his 
earlier revealed ; that thousands of years were ^^^'^^s- 
suffered to pass away before he brought relief ? Indirect 
indications were, indeed, given in Eden, that, though all 
was lost, all was not lost irrecoverably. But these intima- 
tions were mysterious, and were in effect confined to one 
nation. 

20. To this question various replies may be given. 
Mercy, it may be said, is an act of sovereignty possible rea- 
and of favor. Those, therefore, who have no ®^^^- 
claim for pardon, cannot justly ask why pardon was not 
earlier announced, or more profusely bestowed. Or it may 
be said that the delay was an act of One who is infinitely 
wise, and infinitely good ; and that the question betrays a 
groundless suspicion of His goodness, or an equally ground- 
less presumption of man's ability to comprehend His 
reasons. Or, it may be said, that God purposed to exhibit 
to the universe the evils of sin, and to impress upon 
the minds of all intelligent creatures the great lessons 
taught in human apostacy, and the fearful consequences of 
even one act of wilful rebellion. Scripture, however, has 
given us a more definite answer than any of ^j^g ^^^^ ^^^ 
these. It intimates clearly that before God ^^^' 

could reveal himself or his truth in all its fullness, prepara- 
tion must be made for the revelation ; and that it was ^'in 
the FULLNESS OF TIME he sent forth his Son to redeem them 
that were under the Law, and that we might receive the 
adoption of sons." 

21. This answer is susceptible of several illustrations. . 



J 2 CHAPTER II. 

(1.) It is one of the fundamental truths of the Gospel, 
that by the deeds of the law no man can be 

Illustrations of •' 

"the fullness of mstified 1 and that if man be saved at all, it 

time." *^ ' ' 

Hopelessness of must be by the intervention of another. All 
scheme^proved his acts are sinful, even the holiest. They are 
by the delay, (j^fgctive either in themselves, or in the motives 
that prompt them ; and even if it could be shown that any 
single act was perfect, its perfection could not cancel the 
guilt of other acts confessedly sinful. Added to this judi- 
cial difficulty is one no less serious. Man is degraded and 
fallen : never yet, apart from the Gospel, has human nature 
been renewed. 

These truths, however, are among the last that men be- 
lieve or admit : and needed to be proved by experiment, 
in order that a practical demonstration might be given of 
the necessity of redemption. This demonstration is one 
object of all history. From the beginning man had some 
divine light. The Gentile world had in addition the teach- 
ing of natural religion, while the Jews had superadded the 
teaching of a written revelation. For four thousand years 
men were left to these influences, that it might be known 
whether or no they would feel after God, if haply they 
might find him. The Gentiles, we know from history as 
well as from Scripture, did not like to retain God in their 
knowledge. The Jews, who had received a pure system, 
corrupted and abused it. And so far was man from show- 
ing any tendency to ''regain self-raised his native seat," 
that every where his depravity became more intense ; until, 
at the time of the advent of the Messiah, the world, and 
the civilized world especially, had reached a pre-eminence 1 
in wickedness which had never been surpassed. 

This experiment, moreover, was made under every | 
variety of circumstances. First, different forms of govern- 
ment were tried : Monarchy, Aristocracy, and Democracy. 
Authority was given successively into the hands of the one, 



J 



§ 3. THE FULLNESS OF TIME. *73 

of the many, and of the few; but all failed. To originate 
a form of government which, under favorable conditions, 
might raise a poor and industrious people to power and 
wealth, seemed easy enough ; but the very attainment of 
these objects rendered their downfall inevitable. Wealth 
and power brought luxury and licentiousness, and these, 
ultimately, retribution and defeat. Every system of law, 
and every constitution of government, had, in fact, either 
in itself or in human nature, the seeds of decay. If vicious, 
it worked its own failure ; if perfect, it led the sooner to 
greatness, which (as human nature is) is itself ruin. Un- 
less, therefore, help arise from some other source, the con- 
dition of our race is desperate, and our moral redemption 
impossible. 

Nor, during these political changes, were influences 
wanting of a more subtle order. The human mind had 
made great acquirements in philosophy and knowledge. 
From Pythagoras to Socrates (B. C. 600-400) questions 
of physical and moral truth had been incessantly discussed ; 
and the wisdom of that age reached its perfection in the 
intellectual reign of the Sophists — a race who boasted of 
their ability to prove the same act either right or wrong, 
and the same proposition either false or true ; thus sub- 
verting the very principles of virtue. Then Socrates 
appeared — one of the noblest lights of his age. He com- 
batted the errors of his countrymen ; proved, from the 
things that are made, the existence and attributes of God, 
and from his character the relations which he sustains to 
man. The life of the philosopher was the price he paid 
for his fidelity ; and though his sentiments survived in 
Plato, they were employed by him as themes of philoso- 
phical speculation, and not of practical concern. Sublime 
and beautiful these speculations are, but, like the stars, 
they are too high above us to be of real use ; and the ten- 
dency of his teaching was seen in the writings of his suc- 

1 



^4 CIIAPTEPw II. 

cessor Aristotle, who possessed one of the clearest and 
strongest intellects, and yet contributed not a single offer- 
ing to the cause of religion or morality. He found men 
under the bondage of sin. The passions that bound them 
he analyzed with matchless skill, but not one effort did he 
put forth for their relief. 

A third fact remains. The aesthetic and the moral are 
closely allied. Does not, therefore, the cultivation of the 
taste lead to reformation ? And to this question history 
has given a reply no less distinct. The age of Plato was 
the golden age of Grecian art. Sculpture, and poetry, and 
eloquence, had all framed their faultless models- — and all 
ministered to vice. If the eye rested on any part of the 
streets of Athens, (the altar of Greece, as Pausanias after- 
wards called it,) it discovered every where the most finished 
specimens of sculpture ; but each filled the imagination 
with all that was morally revolting. Taste presided over 
every department of life ; but it was taste revelling in licen- 
tiousness. So that it became a common remark, that the 
days in which men worshipped their clay idols were less 
godless and immoral than those in which they bowed down 
to marble and gold. 

Whether, therefore, if man had been left in his first 
apostacy, he would ever have recovered himself from that 
condition, is a question settled by the experience of four 
thousand years ; and settled in terms so decisive, as to 
prove our need of the Gospel, and to supply important 
evidence of its truth. 

22. (2.) While man's moral helplessness was receiving 
these painful illustrations, there mi2:ht have 

The Gospel a ' o 

spiritual sys- bccu traccd preparations for the coming of 
adapted to an Clirist of a morc positive kind. 

If, for example, we examine the Christian 
dispensation, and compare the form in which it is revealed 
with the form in which truth is revealed under the Law, it 



§ 3. THE FULLNESS OF TIME. T5 

will be seen that the conceptions of the former belong 
essentially to an advanced stage of civilization. Adapted 
in its FACTS to every age, and in its precepts and teaching 
too, it nevertheless addresses itself, in a very large extent, 
to the spiritual nature of man. It has to do with thought, 
feeling, sentiment, and motive — in a word, with truth sub- 
jectively considered ; while earlier revelations have to do 
chiefly with objective truth, and with objective truth in 
simple and material forms. The history both of nations 
and languages proves that, in the earlier periods of our 
race, the conceptions of man are mainly from without. So 
that the ideas of the Gospel as embodied, for example, in 
the Epistles, could hardly have been comprehended till man 
had passed the first stage of his progress, and had become 
intellectually somewhat refined. In our own day, an Afri- 
can can understand its facts. Its elevating tendency 
is moreover so strong, as rapidly to prepare him for 
admiring its simplicity and nobleness. But even under 
such teaching, generations may pass before the Gospel, as 
a spiritual revelation, is adequately appreciated ; nor can 
even the best instructed among ourselves affirm that he 
has fathomed its depths. To have tempered these quali- 
ties of the Gospel with an admixture of earthliness would 
have marred its beauty; and to have revealed a Gospel 
equally spiritual in an earlier age, would have rendered 
necessary a much larger amount of evidence to authenticate 
it, while a continued miracle must have been required to 
preserve parts of it to the world. 

23. (3.) The Gospel, moreover, is revealed in human 
language, and attested by miracle. But the Ian- 
ffuaere of a barbarous aere would have been une- guage emiuent- 

^ ^ ^ ly spiritaal. 

qual to the task of embodying and transmitting its evidence 

/» 1 1 T • 1 requires some 

its truths, and the state of knowledge in such knowledge of 

an age would have rendered miracles impossible. 

Unless the laws of nature are to some extent known, men 



16 CHAPTER II. 

cannot determine when in particular cases they are departed 
from or not. Savages are governed by imagination rather 
than by reason, and court deception by their credulity. 
The testimony of savage nations, therefore, in relation to 
the marvelous, is always received wdth suspicion. A reve- 
lation like the Gospel, with disclosures so stupendous, and 
sustained by facts so unusual, could hardly have been trans- 
mitted to Europe from ISTew Zealand, for example, in a 
form to gain or deserve credence. There are in that coun- 
try no words capable of conveying truth, and having at the 
same time a critical apparatus sufficient to guide future 
ages in discovering their meaning ; nor is there there the 
intellect requisite to appreciate and prove the facts by 
which truth is sustained. 

It illustrates these remarks, and proves the superintend- 
ence of the Providence of God, to notice that, although 
when Christ appeared the Greeks had sunk morally into 
the lowest state of degradation, they had been cultivating 
for ages, and with the greatest success, a language which 
has long been the admiration of the human race. It com- 
bines the opposite qualities of strength and flexibility ; is 
equally adapted for the expression of logical distinctions, 
and of tenderest sentiment ; and we doubt whether it 
appears to most advantage in the '' terrible vehemence" of 
Demosthenes, the lyric softness of Anacreon, the high ima- 
ginative philosophy of Plato, or the exactness of Aristotle. 
It certainly adorns and illustrates them all. As a conse- 
quence of this perfection, partly as its cause, the language 
has attracted to itself whatever is most delightful in litera- 
ture and profound in philosophy. A large apparatus is 
ever therefore ready to aid all who wish to explore its 
treasures. The study of it has ever revived with the revi- 
val of letters. It may be added that those remains which 
have come down to us are especially rich in the expressions 
of spiritual truth, and in terms which are adapted to illus- 



§ 3. THE FULLNESS OF TIME. ^^ 

trate the Bible, so that, though the doctrines of the Gospel 
are new and Divine, hardly a term required to be modified 
in order to adapt this language to the purpose of express- 
ing them ; and for such slight modifications the Jews and 
Hellenists were already prepared by the influence of the 
Septuagint, and the connection of Alexandria with Judaea 
and Europe. 

24. (4.) The language which thus became adapted from 
its richness to express religious truth, was no as a universal 
less adapted to transmit it in consequence of its edlo^e're'^^*'^' 
universality. When the Greek tongue attained favorable VoTts 
in the writings of Plato and Aristotle its high- <^^^^^^- 

est perfection, the hero appeared who was to give it its 
widest influence. Alexander, after subduing Greece and 
the eastern districts of Europe, extended his conquests 
eastward, and in a few years all Asia to the borders of 
India became tributary. Throughout all these regions the 
authority of the Greeks was established, and their literature 
introduced. Greek soon became the language of rank, of 
intelligence, and even of commerce. The conquest of 
Greece by Rome only extended its influence.- The lan- 
guage and philosophy of Athens became in Italy the theme 
of almost idolatrous admiration. The victories and uni- 
versal empire of the imperial city carried the Greek tongue 
to all the countries washed by the Mediterranean ; and in 
the time of Christ whatever was written in Greek became 
accessible to all who, by their religion, (as the Jews) or 
their intelligence, (as the Greeks) or their power (as the 
Romans,) gave character to their age, or conferred distinc- 
tion on their nation. 

25. These successive changes, involving a slow and 
gradual development of the Divine purpose, 

seem essential to the establishment of a religion 

which was intended from the first to become universal, and 



YS CHAPTER II. 

whose evidence and doctrines were to be examined and 
believed by the whole human race. It ill becomes us at 
least to question either the wisdom or the goodness of this 
delay ; for it has secured to us ample historical confirma- 
tion of the most humbling of the truths of revelation, the 
completeness, namely, of our ruin ; while it supplies a 
fullness of evidence, a beauty and explicitness of language, 
which on any other supposed arrangement would have been 
impossible for us to attain. If previous dispensations have 
suffered, it is for ''our consolation and salvation." The 
very disadvantages of past ages, and the mystery of the 
Gospel in withholding its light, add to our privilege and 
responsibility. 

If these reasonings seem strained, let it only be supposed 
that the great fact of the Gospel, the coming of Christ as 
our pattern and sacrifice, had been revealed with all the 
spiritual lessons it involves in the days of the Exode, and 
in even the Hebrew tongue. The solemn evidence of the 
complete ruin of the human race must then have been with- 
held. That the world by wisdom knew not God would 
have been a truth of revelation only, not of experience. 
Sophistry and licentiousness, which had corrupted natural 
religion, would have spent their force upon the revealed 
The language of Scripture, which, even with all the avail- 
able helps supplied by Grecian and Hellenistic literature, 
has been perverted so as to subserve nearly every form of 
error, would have been incapable of definite exegesis ; and, 
in a word, the religion intended to become universal must 
have been confessed to be unfit for its work, unless strength- 
ened and sustained by a multiplication of miracles, as incon- 
sistent with the economy of the Divine procedure as it 
would have been injurious to human faith.* 

* The latter views of this section are largely discussed and illustrated 
by Dr. Wayland, and in a recent work by Rev. W. J. Conybeare and 
Rev. J. S. Ilowson on the Life and Epistles of St. Paul. 



§ 4. state of the jews at the messiah's coming. 1^ 

Sect. 4. — The State of the Jews at the cominCx of the 

Messiah. 

26. While these preparatory changes were taking place 
in other parts of the world the Jews themselves 
were undergoing an important change. Their chang(^s m 
intercourse with the Gentiles, and the severe 
punishment which they had suffered in Babylon and in 
Judaea, checked their tendency to idolatry and confirmed 
them in their faith. Since the captivity the Scriptures were 
more frequently consulted, and synagogues were established 
in most of the larger cities of Palestine. 

2Y. This intercourse with strangers became also more 
extensive. In Egypt colonists early settled, 
and Alexander gave them privileges in his new Judaism and 
city of Alexandria. A little later, they built a 
temple for themselves in that country, and thus weakened 
the ties that bound them to the Holy City. As the con- 
nection of the Jews with Egypt had at first been a scourge, 
so now it became a snare. From choice or necessity, 
settlers also established themselves in Asia Minor, Greece, 
and Italy ; and, in the time of our Lord, there was scarcely 
a country in the whole Roman empire in which Jewish 
colonies might not be found. In almost every city Moses 
had those who preached him ; (Acts xv. 21 ;) a fact that 
influenced on the one hand the national character, and on 
the other prepared the way more completely for the coming 
of the Messiah and the diffusion of his truth. 

28. Other influences were at work of a directly religious 
kind. Most of the rites of the ancient law 
derived their importance from their symbolical maiism of the 
character. They were doctrines and precepts 
in acts, as we have in the New Testament doctrines and 
precepts in words. Some of those rites were no doubt 
intended to preserve the Jews as a distinct nation ; but 



^ 



80 CHAPTER n. 

most teach lessons of morality and piety, or point attention 
to the work and office of the Messiah. Towards the close 
of that dispensation, however, all that was spiritual and 
significant in the law was forgotten ; the ritual and formal 
alone was remembered, and dead corrupted truth became 
even more potent for evil than heathen error. 

29. As, therefore, we see among Pagans the effects of 
True religion ignoraucc of truc rcUgion, so among the Jews 
corrupted. ^^ noticc the dircctiou the human mind takes 
when true religion decays. There were every where mere 
formalism and hypocrisy ; but these qualities were modi- 
fied by the different tendencies of men. 

30. (1.) There was the traditional tendency. Under 

its influence human elements were mingled with 
the Divine, and forms that compressed and 
destroyed the substance of piety were substituted for such 
as grew out of it. In the place of the real essence there 
came a dead ceremonial, much of which was of earthly 
origin ; while what was heavenly became, in consequence 
of the place assigned to it in the prevalent system^ corrupt 
and abominable. This was Pharisaism, or legal Judaism. 
The disciples of this sect reflected most truly the national 
character, and were favorites with the people. Their tra- 
ditions are noticed in various parts of the Gospels.* Some 
of these traditions were harmless ; others of them made 
void the law. It is, however, the spirit of this sect, and 
their estimate of religion, that our Lord condemns. Rigid- 
ly severe in avoiding transgressions of the ritual precepts, 
they were ready at any time for violations of the moral 
law, and able by casuistry to excuse them. They com- 
mended frequent fastings and ^^long prayers in the syna- 
gogues,'' but allowed hypocrisy and covetousness. Their 
motive was the praise of men ; their righteousness, the 
observance of outward duty ; their very humility, spiritual 

* Matt. XV. 2 ; Mark vii. 9. 



§ 4. STATE OF THE JEWS AT THE MESSIAH'S COMING. 81 

pride. They were, it need hardly be added, the bitterest 
enemies of our Lord ; and it is more than once said in the 
Gospels, that there was less hope of their amendment, than 
of the amendment of the most impious and immoral. Such 
was their general character. In some few, religion was the 
expression of honest but misguided zeal.* 

31. (2.) But extremes beget or strengthen one another. 
The foreign additions made to Scripture by insadducee- 
one sect were disowned by others ; and Avith ^^™' 
the rejection of the additions came the rejection of much 
that was genuine and true. Hence arose Sadduceeism, 
rationalistic Judaism, or infidelity. This sect denied the 
authority of all tradition, and objected to all development 
even of such truths as were plainly implied in the Penta- 
teuch itself; so that they often misunderstood the very 
books which they professed to receive. They denied also 
the doctrine of the resurrection and the immortality of the 
soul ; deeming these doctrines not proved by the letter of 
the Mosaic record, and inconsistent with the disinterested 
obedience which man is required to give to God. Their 
denial of the existence of spirits and of angels is hardly 
explicable on any principle, except that when once the 
mind of man has yielded to skeptical feeling, its unbelief 
becomes even more credulous than a heathen's faith. The 
precepts of the law, in their least spiritual signification, 
were all they regarded. Without denying a Providence, 
they made God, as far as possible, an idle spectator of the 
affairs of the universe ; and were led to embrace a system 
of Deism, which all but completely set aside the authority 
of revelation. Their doctrines were favorably received by 
the young men of Judea ; and produced, as Josephus had 
remarked, dispositions in the highest degree cold and 
repulsive. 

The Sadducees were mostly persons of wealth, who lived 

* Rom. X. 2, 3. 



82 CHAPTER II. 

lives of easy enjoyment, without opening their minds to 
any higher aspirations. From their position they occupied 
some of the most important posts in the country. Caia- 
phas, who condemned our Lord, was a Sadducee ;* and 
Josephus states, that the Herod who felt John's preaching 
so keenly belonged to this sect.f He thus furnishes an 
illustration of the power of conscience over infidelity — a 
system which his heart, rather than his reason, had be- 
lieved. 

32. (3.) Neither of these views, however, met the wants 
Among the ^^ ^^^ ^^ Warmer devotional feeling. The 
Essenes. Pharisccs belicved too much, and the Saducees 
too little. Both failed, in the opinion of this third sect, to 
understand the import of the Divine word, which is not on 
the surface, but beneath, and must be reached by allegori- 
cal interpretations. Hence arose the Essenes, the repre- 
sentatives of the mystics and ascetics of the middle ages. 
They differed from the Pharisees in not relying on tradi- 
tion, and in not strictly regarding the law ; and from the 
Sadducees, in their self-denying habits and belief of a future 
state. They despised all outward forms of worship, ne- 
glected the plain literal meaning of Scripture, and sought 
only for what was mystical and concealed. They professed 
to have sought after a life abstracted from all earthly 
things, and devoted to the contemplation of God. (Col. 
ii. 16--19.) In their creed they were unqualified fatalists. 
Some parts of the Epistles of John are supposed to refer 
to their doctrines ; but, as they had seceded from the body 
of the Jewish people before the coming of our Lord, they 
are not noticed by name in the narratives of his ministry. 

33. (4.) Closely allied to the Pharisees in their religions 

views, were the Galileans. They were distin- 
guished from that sect chiefly by their poUHcal 
tenets ; holding that all foreign domination, whether seca- 

* Acts iv. 6 ; V. IT. f Mark vi. 20. 



§ 4. STATE OF THE JEWS AT THE MESSIAH'S COMING. 83 

lar or religious, was unscriptural, and that God was the 
only King of the Jews. As our Lord came from Galilee, 
the Pharisees attempted to identify him with this sect. 

34. (5.) The Herodians were chiefly Sadducees in their 
relia-ious tenets, but were a political rather than 

° ' ^ The Herodians. 

a religious sect. It was their principle to pro- 
mote intimacy with the Roman power by flattery and un- 
limited submission ; and, above all, by introducing into 
Judea the usages and customs of the Roman people. This 
union with idolatry, on the. ground of worldly policy, was 
probably the leaven against which our Lord cautioned his 
disciples, as it involves hypocrisy. (Mark viii. 15) 

35. (6.) The Scribes were not a religious sect, but a 
learned profession. It was their business to 

write copies of the Law, and to expound its 
meaning ; and hence they are called ''lawyers," and ^'doc- 
tors of the law.'' As religionists, they generally favored 
the Pharisees. All sects, however, had friends among 
them. 

36. (T.) The Samaritans claimed an interest in the 
Mosaic covenant, but are distinguished by TheSamari- 
Christ himself from ''the lost sheep of the *^^®- 
house of Israel," and from their Gentile neighbors. Those 
of the time of Christ sprang from colonists, with whom 
the king of Assyria peopled Samaria, after the ten tribes 
were carried away. A captive priest was sent to teach 
them ; and though they at first regarded God as a kind of 
tutelary deity, and much of their system was corrupt, yet 
they afterwards attempted to become united with the Jews, 
so as to form one church. This attempt did not succeed ; 
but a considerable body of Jews, under one of their priests, 
settled in Samaria, and erected upon Mount Gerizim an 
independent temple (which remained till the days of John 
Hyrcanus, b. c. 109), and established what they deemed a 



84 CHAPTER II. 

more orderly observance of the Mosaic law. They founded 
all their religious practices and faith upon the Pentateuch, 
and rejected the other inspired writings. This division 
had been overruled for good. The mutual enmity of the 
two parties had tended to make both the more zealous for 
the purity of their respective copies of the Law. The 
separation of the Samaritans kept them free from the 
pride and narrowness so prevalent among their neighbors. 
Of spurious descent themselves, and despised by the people 
around them, they had a juster appreciation of the com- 
prehensive purpose of the Gospel, and regarded all nations 
as entitled to its blessings. They accordingly received one 
of the earliest intimations from our Lord that he was the 
Messiah, (John iv.) and were otherwise frequently noticed 
by him in the course of his ministry. 

31. (8.) Proselytes were, in the time of our Lord, a 

very numerous body. Some were proselytes 
rose y es. ^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ Called) ; and had 

simply pledged themselves to renounce all idolatry, and to 
worship the true God. This class had all heard of the 
coming of Messiah, and had generally little sympathy with 
Jewish prejudice. Others were proselytes of righteousness. 
These took upon themselves all the obligations of the 
Mosaic Law, and joined in offering sacrifice in the outer 
court of the temple to the God of Israel. The Pharisees 
took great pains to make these proselytes, and were aided 
by the fading authority of the old religions, and the rever- 
ence in which the God of the Jews was held even by the 
heathen. As these teachers had no true idea of their reli- 
gion, they could impart none. Their converts, therefore, 
only changed their superstition, hushed the accusations of 
conscience, and became two-fold more the children of hell 
than before. (Matt, xxiii. 15.) They were ever among 
the bitterest enemies of the Christian faith. 



§ 4. STATE OF THE JEWS AT THE MESSIAH'S COMING. 85 

38. Such were the Jews in the time of Christ ; the peo- 
ple were divided between these sects, and mis- The tendencies 
led by them all. And, strange as it may ZllTo^^^^ 
appear, such is human nature still. In all lands ^^^^ai. 
there are some who, with the Sadducees, deify reason, and 
others who compile and adore traditions. These sects still 
live. Sadduceeism is cold, sneering selfishness ; Pharisee- 
ism, spiritual pride, or dead Scripture learning ; the doc- 
trine of the Essenes, sentimental mysticism and monkery ; 
the leaven of the Galileans, unhallowed fanaticism ; of the 
Herodians, unblushing worldliness : the very qualities which 
are found in our own day in all regions of the globe. It 
is an evidence of the divine origin of our faith, that, while 
it counteracts temporary forms of evil, it counteracts them 
on principles that are permanent, and that it so reveals 
their true character, as to help us in tracing them under 
their different disguises throughout all lands. 

39. It was the result of these errors, that when Christ 
appeared, all parties misapprehended his mis- influence of 
sion. Without any just appreciation of spiri- deTon''mtn"g 
tual truth, accustomed to interpret the precepts ^^^ws of Christ, 
of Scripture rather according to the letter than according 
to the spirit, feeling deeply the degradation of their coun- 
try as a mere tributary to Home, and unmindful of the 
deeper degradation from which it sprung, they all thought 
of Christ as a temporal deliverer ; expected what they most 
prized, and overlooked the predictions of their sacred 
Scriptures, which spoke of him in a way altogether incon- 
sistent with the establishment of a temporal kingdom. 
That they should expect the Gentiles to be excluded from 
the benefits of the Messiah's reign, was equally natural. 
Jerusalem was still to be in their esteem the seat of empire ; 
and if others were in any way to share in the blessing, it 
could only be, they thought, by submitting to their autho- 
rity, and never as equals and friends. The same low, 

8 



86 CHAPTER IT. 

earthly system of interpretation was applied to all parts of 

the new economy, including the atonement and the doctrine 

of eternal life ; so that it became difficult for our Lord to 

clear away the incrustation with which the law had been 

covered, and to show them in their own Scripture the 

germs of the truth which he was commissioned to reveal. 

In every age Divine truth has been spiritually discerned ; 

and the worst interpreter of it is a wordly and unbelieving 

mind. 

40. Those among the Jews, on the contrary, who felt 

their sinfulness, and were waiting for the con- 
Exceptions. 

solation of Israel, knew not indeed all that was 
to be revealed, but they were prepared to appreciate all ; 
and when the prophecies were interpreted according to 
their spiritual meaning, and the law according to its high- 
est import, and the kingdom of God and eternal life accord- 
ing to the estimates which those men had formed of the 
value of personal holiness, they felt, that though in this 
teaching was much that was new, it was all consistent with 
whatever was noble and spiritual in the previous economy. 
To multitudes this Gospel was foolishness, a rock of stum- 
bling and a stone of offence ; to a few it was light, and joy, 
and peace ; to those who were (aco^ofisvot,) being saved, it 
was life unto life ; to them that were being lost, (aTtoT^xv 
fjisvot,) it was death unto death. 2 Cor. ii. 16. 



I 



CHAPTER III. 



SCENES CONNECTED WITH CHRIST'S EN- 
TRANCE UPON HIS PERSONAL MINISTRY. 

§ 1. The mission of John and his testimony concerning 
Christ. 

§ 2. The temptation, and John's second testimony 

§ 3. The beginning of miracles. 

§ 4. Christ's first public act 

§ 5. Christ's first discourse. 

§ 6. Christ's first journey. 

§ T. Christ rejected by his countrymen. 

§ 8. Christ incarnate — a revelation of God, and a model 
OF holiness. 

§ 9. Christ incarnate — a Saviour through suffering. 



(81) 



88 



HARMONY OF THE GOSPELS. 



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CHAPTER III. 



Sect. 1.— The mission of John and his testimony con- 
cerning Christ. 

1. Eighteen years elapse between the events recorded 
of the childhood of Christ, and the commence- Christ's age 
ment of his ministry. His ofi&ce was to be a ^^^^ upon'his 
solemn and responsible one. It was connected, ^®'^®- 
moreover, with ancient institutions, and required in the 
person who filled it ample evidence of sobriety and pru- 
dence. It was therefore when Christ '^ began to be about 
thirty years of age," that He entered upon his work. The 
interval He seems to have spent at JS^azareth (Mark i. 9 ; 
Luke iv. 16.) At that age priests, under the law, were 
deemed qualified for the full duties of the priest- Reasons for its 
hood. By that age the human nature of Christ ^a^^^ity- 
may be supposed to have been perfectly developed, so as 
to be thoroughly prepared for the rich communications of 
the Spirit, which he was about to receive. Against one 
of his years, moreover, the charge of youthful enthusiasm, 
or of unripe purpose, must have fallen utterly powerless. 

2. Even for one so completely matured, a threefold pre- 
paration was required ; the first, external, such 

as was supplied by the preaching of John the paration re- 
Baptist ; the second, Divine, imparted in the ^^^^ ' 
outpouring of the Holy Spirit, for even the pure ofi'spring 
of God needed for His work a special anointing ; and the 

(89) 



90 CHAPTER III. 

third^ inward and experimental, such as was supplied by 
the temptation in the wilderness. 

3. John's was purely a preparatory ministry. He came, 
as had been foretold, in the spirit and power 

Nature of -^ x a 

John's minis- of Elias ; ouc of the earliest prophets under 

try. 

the ancient monarchy, and the boldest of the 
reformers of the ancient church. In his whole ministry, 
he represents the majesty of the law. He appears rough 
and severe. Separated from the world, and revealing to it 
the sternness of the judge, he recalls the attention of his 
countrymen to the Divine institutions ; shows how, among 
all classes, those institutions had been broken, and exhorts 
to repentance. It illustrates how far the Jews as a nation 
had fallen, that repentance had its Divinely appointed 
symbol in baptism — an ordinance appropriate to the recep- 
tion of converts, or at least to a consecration of something 
previously defiled. It was not so much, therefore, a resto- 
ration as a re-formation of character which he sought to 
produce ; a re-formation, however, chiefly legal, for the 
Spirit was not given, and the reign of heaven was as yet 
only at hand.* 



** In this account of John's ministry it appears to us that the esteemed 
author is somewhat defective and one-sided. John can with no propriety 
be classed with the teachers or prophets of the legal dispensation, since 
he received a special mission, with a special institution to introduce the 
new. The Evangelists do not hesitate to declare his ministry " the begin- 
ning of the Gospel." Mark i. 1. Christ expressly aflBrms that "the law 
and the prophets were until John ,♦ since then the kingdom of God is 
preached." The arguments that would invalidate John's ministry as a 
part of the Gospel dispensation, especially those presented by our author, 
would also invalidate the whole ministry of onr Lord himself, and that 
of all the Apostles and the Seventy during his lifetime. For this reason 
they must be inconclusive. Our Lord and his Apostles received baptism 
from his hands ; they preached the same things ; they " made and bap- 
tized disciples" in the same manner, and at the same time ; nor did John 
deem it necessary to cease from his work even after the manifestation of 
Christ in his baptism, but continued it still as the servant of his a^gknow- 



§ 1. THE MISSION OF JOHN. 91 

John's then was a baptism of repentance ; and repent- 
ance was a preparation for the forgiveness Acaiitore- 
of sins, (h^ a^s6vv, Lukeiii. 3.) The exhi- TTiewToU*?- 
bition of the law could do little more than ^^^' 
to give to man a knowledge of his sins, and a long- 
ing for the grace that was to remove them. The re- 
pentance, therefore, which he preached, though really a 
change in the deepest recesses of the mind (^^r'aVota,) was 
chiefly negative, and needed something positive to complete 
it ; even the influence of the Spirit which men were to 
receive through faith in Christ. It was thus his office to 
enforce and explain the law, and thereby to awaken the 
necessity which the Redeemer came to appease. 

All ranks seem to have felt his appeals. The general 
determination was obvious. Each sect blamed the preten- 
sions and corruptions of the rest. Men's minds were every 
where restless and excited concerning the fulfillment of the 
ancient predictions and the coming of a Messiah. No 
wonder, therefore, that all Judea and Jerusalem flocked to 
his baptism.* 

ledged Lord, as "the friend of the Bridegroom," rejoicing to do Him 
honor, even to the sacrifice of his liberty and life.. This " more than a 
prophet;" this "messenger;" this ^angeF of the new dispensation, (Luke 
vii. 27, 27,) is very improperly represented as ' chiefly the expounder and 
reformer of the old.* It is in fact overlooking his most peculiar and pre- 
eminent glory. 

The comparison of our Lord in Matt. xi. 11, appears to he misunder- 
stood by many, and by our author among the rest. " The least in the 
kingdom of God is," indeed " greater" than John the Baptist; in this 
sense — that his privileges as a child and heir of God are infinitely more 
precious than the highest oflacial honor conferred on man. "Verily I 
say unto you, among them that are born of women there hath not arisen 
a greater than John the Baptist; notwithstanding he that is least in the 
kingdom of heaven is greater than he." J. N. B. 

* Luke says that the crowds {ox^oi) went to it. Matthew mentions par- 
ticularly Pharisees and Sadducees, thus indicating the prevalence of 
those sects. Luke iii. 7 ; Matt. iii. 7. 



92 CHAPTER III. 

4. Like all the prophets, he made the theme of his 

preachino:, not himself, but One that was to 

Announces the ^ " ^ 

kingdom of come. He, however, enforced his appeals by 

heaven. ' ^ i f J 

the assurance that the kingdom of heaven, or, as 
St. Luke calls it, ^' the kingdom of God," was nigh. Some- 
times, but rarely, that kingdom was afterwards called, ^' the 
kingdom of the Son of man" (Matt. xiii. 41) ; sometimes, 
with reference to the typical character of the old economy, 

^' the kingdom of David." (Mark xi. 10.) And 

all those phrases are significant, though it was 
many years before their meaning was fully explained. 

Christ gradually unfolded the laws of His king- 

gradual devel- ttt 'itii n tt 

opment of this dom. i irst, He described the character oi His 
subjects. Then distinctly announced that His 
kingdom came not with outward show, or worldly pomp, 
but was within; that it began as the smallest seed, and 
grew up with the growth of his word ; then further, that it 
did not seek the aid of temporal power. (Matt. v. vi. xiii. ; 
Luke xvii. 10 ; John xviii. 36.) His meaning was still 
further unfolded in the history of the early church ; and 
the Apostles completed the disclosure by reminding their 
converts that that kingdom was not meat and drink, (no 
mere ritual observance, no mere earthly blessing,) but, in 
relation to individuals, '^ righteousness, and peace, and joy 
in the Holy Ghost;" and in relation to the church, the 
prevalence of those principles among men. (Rom xiv. IT.) 
In reference to this kingdom, John was the forerunner, the 
voice (<|>cov5^) crying in the wilderness, (Matt. iii. 3) : the 
WORD, (6 Tioyoj, Johu i. 1,) the distinct utterance of infinite 
wisdom and love, being as yet to come. 

5. This revelation of the kingly character of Christ, even 
Christ a Kin ^^ ^^^ outset, is highly instructive. He ap- 
peared to bring back the world to its allegiance 

Nature of ms — to knit together again the broken relation 
kingdom. jj^ which the creature had stood to the Creator 



§ 1. John's testimony concerning christ. 93 

and to himself. His constituted representative in the 
theocracy, David, probably suggested the name — ''the 
kingdom or reign of God," (Ps. Ixxii., xcvii,) though this 
title is not found in any ancient writings till after the canon 
of the Old Testament had closed. The idea, however, 
pervades Scripture, and is frequently introduced in the 
prophets.* Daniel even describes in express terms the 
expected sanctification of all things, and the coming of a 
Messiah, whom all nations were to obey, f This kingdom 
of God, or of the Messiah, or of righteousness, is opposed 
to the reign of sin,J and of its representative, the ruler or 
prince of this world. Under the one, iniquity has long 
triumphed in the hearts of men and on earth : under the 
other, the dominion of iniquity is to be overthrown, and 
the dominion of holiness to be re-established ; first in the 
secret recesses of each Christian's life, then in things exter- 
nal to it, afterwards, and by degrees, among the family of 
man. All things are to be ultimately subject to Christ and 
holiness, both things external and internal ; but mainly 
and first the internal ; and thence is his influence to extend 
throughout the world. § 

This explanation of the nature of Christ's kingdom is of 
the deepest interest, and is essential to a complete under- 
standing of the discourses of our Lord. The Jews thought 
of it as external only, and as thoroughly Jewish and secu- 
lar. Others, on the contrary, (and among them the Gnos- 
tics,) denied its future external manifestation, and spoke 
of it only as invisible and spiritual. The true theory is 
that which represents it as not of the world, but still in 
the world ; beginning in individual hearts, extending out- 

* Isa. ii. 1— 14,- xi. 1, &c.; Ps. Ixxxv. 11, 12; Jer. xxiii. 5, 9; 
xxxiv. 23, &c. 

t Dan. ii. 44: vii. 14, 27; ix. 25. 

j; /3a(Ti\eia rns afxapTia's — dffXfiJv rov Kdaiiov t6vtov» 

J See Appendix. 



94 CHAPTER III. 

ward to the sanctification of the life, and ultimately reach- 
ing and influencing the whole race. Of this kingdom 
Christ is the head ; its seat is the heart and the church. In 
the narrowest sense it comes whenever a human soul is 
made submissive and obedient to Christ. It came in power 
at Pentecost, when thousands were converted to the faith ; 
and in its largest sense it is still to come. It had its type 
in the Jewish theocracy, and it will have its complete real- 
ization in heaven. 

6. As became the head of this spiritual kingdom, He 
Obedience of entered upon His ministry by an act of obedi- 
pSntedinstitu- ^^^^' ^^ ^^^ cMldhood hc rcccived the sign 
tions. Qf ^]^Q covenant, and submitted to the ceremo- 

nial purification required by the law. In later years He 
took part in the sacrificial offerings of the temple worship. 
So now He is anxious to obey the Divine will, not only as 
revealed by the founder of the ancient institutions, but as 
revealed by the herald of the New Dispensation. He ful- 
filled all righteousness. ''He came to John to be baptized 
of him." Matt. iii. 13, 11, 

John felt that this application was, in one respect, unbe- 
john's first tes- comiug ; and yet, as he was only the repre- 
timony. scutativc of a Diviuc institute, he at once 

yielded to Christ's decision ; thus avoiding the mock humi- 
lity (but real pride) which a pertinacious refusal of it 
would have involved, and honoring by his submission the 
authority of Divine law. 

t. The moment of obedience was selected by God as the 
Thetimeofobe- Hiomcut of the manifestation of Christ as the 
of7e?og^nitioT Messianic King, of course, as the accepted 
by the Father, prophet. The baptism of water became the 
symbol and accompaniment of the promised influence of the 
Spirit. Christ now attained, as man, the height of that 
knowledge which had gradually developed itself in Him ; 
and now was imparted that fullness of power which was 



§ 2. THE TEMPTATION. 95 

essential to the performance of His ministry. Here, there- 
fore, the character of (the xp^(S'^os,) the Anointed One, first 
appears ; and here He is solemnly consecrated to his office 
in His own presence, and in that of his forerunner and 
prophet John ; for as he came up out of the water, the 
Spirit of God in bodily shape (visible both to Christ and 
to His messenger) descended as a dove and abode upon 
Him ; and a voice was he^rd from heaven, saying, ^' This 
is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." 

8. At His birth his person was owned (Luke i. 35) ; in 
His baptism His ministry is owned, and the successive 
Father is pleased in Him ; by and bye He will, n^sTi^thr^^^^^ 
for the third time, be owned again, when His ra\Ton?and'°re" 
regal glory shines for a moment around him ; surrection. 
and then there will be the addition, ^' hear ye Him." (Luke 
ix. 36). Later still these attestations will all be confirmed ; 
not by words only, but by solemn acts, and the resurrec- 
tion will at length declare him to be the Son of God with 
power. (Rom. i. 4). Each is fitting in its season. At His 
birth. His baptism. His transfiguration, and His resurrec- 
tion. His sonship is attested. His person, His ministry, 
and His dominion, all are owned. At each stage the full 
pleasure of God rests upon Him ; and at last the full sub- 
jection of the earth is demanded for Him. God is ^' well 
pleased in Him," and the church and the world are to 
''hear Him." 

Sect. 2. — The Temptation, and John's Second Testimony 

CONCERNING ChRIST. 

9. This recognition of the public ministry of Christ is 
followed by a far different scene. His transfigu- 

After the recog- 

ration immediately preceded His death: and mtionofour 

TT. • Ti o 1 I-iord comes the 

the recognition of Him here is speedily fol- temptation: 

. . T .IT ^oth prepara- 

lowed by the temptation m the wilderness torytohis 

work. 

After great honor, let Christians count upon 



96 CHAPTER II. 

something that is humbling. The favored Christian needs 
to double his guard. 

10. Christ was led up by the Spirit to be tempted of the 
devil in the wilderness. He was in himself 

How Christ 

could be sinless, but human ; both free from actual 

tempted. . . . i i i 

transgression, and positively holy; yet the 
moral elements of our nature were in Him. He had the 
power of choosing between good and evil, with a human 
conscience and human appetites. He was accessible to 
unholy influences ; and not raised (in one sense at least, 
that is, subjectively, or in his own feeling) above the 
possibility of sinning. In the end, His desire of good 
was perfect and triumphant; yet it must be supposed 
that, as He was made perfect through sufferings, (Heb. 
ii. 10,) so was there a lower stage of progress, in which 
His will was rather the free power of choice than actual 
decision.* 

In another sense, indeed, it was impossible that Christ 
could sin. His sinlessness forms part of the plan of human 
salvation ; a plan that had been in preparation for thou- 
sands of years, and which was destined to influence our 
race for an eternity to come. Millions probably of the 
ancient church were waiting till his triumph was achieved ; 
failure would have involved their ruin and the frustration 
of the purpose of God. It is true also that a divine prin- 
ciple lived and operated in Christ in union with His human 
nature, and that the Spirit, given without measure unto 
Him, secured him against the commission of iniquity. 
But then, in considering these facts in connection with His 
temptation, it must be remembered, on the other hand, 

* Our author appears here inconsistent with facts and with himself. 
" Actual decision" for rectitude, is essential to the lowest stage of moral 
progress, without which no being can be, as Christ was, "positively- 
holy." It is, however, capable of infinite increase in intensity and power, 
and can be perfected only by trial and discipline. J. N. B. 



§ 2. THE TEMPTATION. 9Y 

that a 'perfect obedience was required at His hands. He 
was to be without sin ; the pure and spotless Lamb of God, 
who needed not to bring an offering for Himself. As the 
founder of a kingdom of perfect righteousness and love, 
He was to be to all a lawgiver, a pattern, and 
a judge ; the very image of the invisible God. temptation 
A single stain would have marred his work, 
and have exposed him to the Divine law. It is certain, 
moreover, that whatever was the Divine purpose, and 
whatever the efficacy of the spiritual influence that resided 
in Him, these did not alleviate His temptations, or make 
it less true that He was tempted on all points as we are, 
though without sin ; and that thus He has become quali- 
fied to aid, and to feel for his tempted disciples. (Heb. iv. 
15 ; ii. 18.) It was as man that he entered upon this 
struggle — yet as man with a holy nature ; for the tempta- 
tions all sprang from without, deriving neither origin nor 
strength from anything within. (John xiv. 30.) 

And while this is the aspect of the temptation of Christ 
towards human sufferings, it has an aspect no 

, . . , . , Aspect of it in 

less significant m relation to the reign which relation to uis 

kingdom. 

He came to establish. The very idea of a 
Messiah, a Prince, implies a kingdom of righteousness, and 
the overthrow of an opposing kingdom. Twice in the 
life of our Lord did he struggle with the combined force 
of evil, and twice He conquered it ; now at the outset of 
His ministry, and afterwards at its close. Here the entice- 
ment is to the commendable desires and feelings of His 
nature, as afterwards it was to his fear of suffering and 
death. Both forms, doubtless, presented themselves again 
at different periods of His ministry ; but here, at least, they 
came in a state of concentration, when he was exhausted 
by hunger ; terrible in themselves, but giving in their re- 
sults an assurance that the triumph of the great Conqueror 
would be ultimately complete. As man, therefore, he was 

9 



98 CHAPTER III. 

tempted, but no less as Leader and King. The same act 
that insures to us His sympathy, insures to us the certainty 
of our own success. He suffers with us, and Vv^e triumph 
in Him.* 

11. The first temptation is a skillful appeal to unbelief, 
The first tempt- ^^ ^^^ gratification of sensual instinct, and to 
ation. ^YiQ exercise by our Lord of supernatural power 
for the purpose of appeasing His necessities. The Tempter 
suggests a doubt of His sonship, pleads in proof His 
poverty and suffering, and bids Him put forth His power 
for His own preservation. Christ refused. Compliance 
would have questioned the truth of the voice from heaven, 
and implied distrust of God's power and goodness. It 
would, moreover, have exercised on Himself those wondrous 
powers which throughout His whole ministry he employed 
only for the benefit of others. 

12. But extremes are closely allied. This faith in the 
The second Diviuc powcr, may, perhaps be fostered into 
temptation. presumptiou ; and this confidence of His son- 
ship may be excited to display itself in the public and dazz- 
ling exhibition of attributes connected with this relation. 
(Matt. iv. 5, 6.) " Cast thyself down,'' said the Tempter 
again, and the people will acknowledge that thou art under 
Divine protection. Scripture will be fulfilled, and the Mes- 
senger of the Covenant will be seen to have *' come suddenly 
to his temple." (Mai. iii. 1.) A scripture promise is 
even quoted in favor of this appeal ; true in general, and 
true of Christ. By humble obedience, however, and by 
complete freedom from the least portion of self-will. He 

* This union of the possibility of sinning, and of the necessity of vic- 
tory, is involved in the very nature of the God-man. It is very observa- 
ble that in the last temptation, the Redeemer Himself declares His 
abandonment by the Father. (Matt, xxvii. 46.) That isolation in which 
the humanity of Christ stands alone, gives a true picture of the terrible 
struggle of that hour. Nothing is related of a similar abandonment in 
this place. 



§ 2. THE TEMPTATION 99 

resists these appeals, and conquers. Such an act must have 
implied the need of some further confirmation of the Divine 
promise — have required special interposition for delivery 
from difiiculties to which our Lord was not called ; and 
have been, in short, a perversion of Scripture, and a tempt- 
ing of God. 

13. Thus far was our Lord tempted by things apparently 
innocent. At last He is tempted by things The third 
desirable. The devil even appears as the friend *^"^P<^ation. 
of His mission. '^It is a kingdom thou hast come to 
establish. Be my vicegerent ; or, if thou wilt, reign in my 
stead. The world and all its kingdoms will I give to 
thee, for it has been delivered unto me ;* and the only 
return I require, is an act of homage to my authority, and 
of allegiance to my law." To a human ear there seems 
much force in this appeal, and a human mind might have 
deemed it an easy way of attaining a commendable end. 
Every thing, moreover, is acknowledged to be delivered into 
Satan's hand. Rightful independent authority he disowns. 
But Christ at once detects his sophistry. One truth of 
Scripture answers it all. ^^ There is but one true and ever- 
lasting God; and Him only shalt thou serve.'' The 
assumption of Divine prerogative is sure evidence of dia- 
bolical interference. (2 Thess. ii. 4.) This temptation there- 
fore revealed the true character of the Tempter ; and Christ 
at once rebuked and defeated him. The temptation then 
closed, and the devil left him for a season. (Luke iv. 13.) 

14. Every thingjiere is significant. The first man stood 
in Eden, where the garden and its fruits, with 

.-11. . n , ii 1 i .1 , His tcmpta- 

the willmg service of ten thousand tributary tions a type of 

creatures, bound him to his allegiance. But 

Jesus was in the wilderness, an hungered, and with the 

* Neander, in his Lifo of Jesus, thinks this offer of Satan implies 
tliQ use of secular power to establish Christianity — an idea of vast signifi- 
cance. How many this temptation deceives ! J. JS". B. 



CHAPTER II. 100 

savage beasts. (Mark i. 12, 13.) All things probably 
pleaded with the Tempter against God. In the garden 
paradise was lost, and in the wilderness it was regained. 
The temptations in which this first victory was achieved 
represent our own. They were of every kind (Ttdv-taTtBtfiac 
fiov). They appealed to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the 
eye, and the pride of life. They sought for distrust, and 
presumption, and pride. As the fall gives in brief the 
history of all sin, so the history of all our victories over 
sin may be seen in this triumph of our Lord. At its 
close angels visit Him, to celebrate the result and admin- 
ister relief. 

With the same Spirit there are diversities of gift. Full 
of the Holy Ghost, (Luke iv. 1,) He withstood and con- 
quered the devil. Pull of the same spirit, (ver. 14,) He 
meets sinners to heal and to save them. 

15. But before Christ commenced his public ministry, 
Second testi- ^c rcccivcd frcsh testimony from His forerun- 
monyofjoiin. ^^^^ rpj^^ gj.g^ meeting with John had im- 
pressed itself indelibly on the mind of the forerunner. He 
had then spoken of His dignity, (John i. 20,) and now he 
reveals him under a new character. '' The next day John 
seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb 
of God which taketh away the sins of the world :" the 
Lamb who is to remove human transgression, both in its 
guilt and in its power. All that this designation contains 
we cannot now considei: ; but to the Jews, and to men who 
were probably at this time on their way to the feast of the 
Passover, it is highly instructive. The paschal lamb was 
originally appointed as the means of deliverance from 
otherwise inevitable destruction. It arrested the progress 
of the destroying angel. (Ex. xii. 1-14.) All upon whose 
houses the blood was sprinkled were preserved alive ; while 
all who were without this symbol perished. Christ, as the 
Lamb of God, is our deliverer from a bondage more fearful 



§ 2. THE TEMPTATION. 101 

than that of Egypt ; and from a ruin more awful than tem- 
poral destruction. His death stands always as a complete 
vindication of the law, and an authentic instrument of sanc- 
tification and of acceptance for all to whom His blood 
is applied. The full significance of this truth will be 
noticed hereafter. In the mean time it is important to 
notice that His sacrificial office was revealed as early as 
His kingly ; and that from the first He was set forth, not 
only as suffering, and in suffering leaving us an example 
that we should follow His steps, but as Himself bearing 
our sins in His own body on the tree. Most appropriately, 
therefore, did this testimony close with the recommenda- 
tion, " Behold the Lamb of God ;'' and most appropriately 
did two of John's disciples, on hearing this recommenda- 
tion, go and follow Jesus. Half a century afterwards this 
fact was recorded by St. John, who was one 

- , mi . n The result : Je- 

01 the two. The circumstances were all present sus numbers 
to him. The minutest details and the very 
hour he remembered (John i. 39). But with characteristic 
modesty he has said nothing of those early discourses of 
Christ, which bound him, the beloved disciple, to his Lord 
as long as he lived. Here, as elsewhere, every thing per- 
sonal (unless Christ's character is to be illustrated) is with- 
held ; and all that is told us is, that henceforth Christ began 
to number disciples. For some years they were few and 
despised, nor did they at first relinquish their earthly voca- 
tion. Their summons to personal companionship with our 
Lord was given at a somewhat later period of His history. 
(Matt. iv. 18.) 

16. The faith awakened in the minds of the first disci- 
ples immediately became manifest. Like fire, 
it extended itself, and kindled every thing sus- oftruediscipie- 
ceptible of its influence. Andrew mentioned 
the fact of his having found the Messiah to Peter ; and 

'9* 



102 CHAPTER III. 

Philip, whom Christ had also called, proclaimed it to 
Nathanael or Bartholomew. He questioned the truth of 
Philip's declaration, and alluded to the contempt generally 
entertained for Galilee, of which province Nazareth was an 
unimportant town, in no good repute, moreover, for moral- 
ity. Philip repeats his message, wisely avoiding a useless 
discussion ; and a personal interview with Christ removes 
the scruples of this candid inquirer. ^' Rabbi," says he, 
''thou art the Son of God ; thou art the King of Israel.'' 
Christ had hitherto but told Nathanael what took place 
when he thought himself unseen by human eye ; and the 
Obedience pre- disclosurc produccd couvictiou (Joliti i. 48-50). 
ther'disciS?^' Christ uow tells him that he shall learn more 
gures. sublime disclosures ; and that both things 

earthly, and things heavenly, should be seen as subservient 
to Him. ''In me," says He, "heaven is opened; union 
between the higher world of spirits and the lower sphere 
of things is restored ; and, for a time at least, the angelic 
hosts are in effect transferred to the earth to do my will, 
and to promote the interest of my kingdom. The head of 
the kingdom being among men, angels shall be seen ascend- 
ing and descending* under the authority, and in relation 
to the concerns of the Son of man." 

Sect. 3. — The Beginning of Signs. 
It. From Jordan, where the scene of our narrative has 
The miracle at 1^^^ ^hus far, Christ movcs to Cana, the town 
Cana. ^^ Nathanael, accompanied by His disciples and 

relatives. Here He performed His first public miracle. 
Already had He manifested His omniscience, and already 
had the miraculous descent of the Holy Ghost attested to 
John and Himself the divinity of His mission ; but this is 

* avapaivovTEi comes first, it will be noticed. 



§ 3. THE BEGINNING OF SIGNS. 103 

the first public appeal, and here he first shows forth His 
glory, proving that the fullness of the Deity dwelt in Him.f 

18. Here, moreover, the mother of our Lord is first 
introduced in connection with His public minis- r^^^ relation of 
try; and the terms in which He addresses her ^^ry to Christ. 
arrest our thoughts. Let us, once for all, ascertain and 
decide her place in the Gospel. 

It is observable, firsts that of the Yirgin Mary very little 
is recorded ; and then, that that little is very different from 
what might have been expected. None of the inspired 
writers, except the Evangelists, mention her name, and of 
these, but two record the conception of Christ. One of 
these, John, her adopted son, though, in all likelihood, he 
outlived her many years, does not record her death ; nor 
does he give any particulars of her life ; and yet he wrote 
to supply the omissions of the other Evangelists. It is only 
incidentally mentioned that Jesus committed her to his 
care. Why this infrequent mention of her, whom all 
generations were to call blessed ? Why, but to guard 
against that superstitious veneration, to which, as experi- 
ence has shown, there is naturally so strong a tendency in 
the minds of Christians ? Mariolatry is, alas, the religion 
of Italy and of Rome. For one prayer to Christ, Roman 
breviaries offer ten to the Virgin. How different the reli- 
gion of Apostles and of the Bible ! And when her name 
is introduced, it is in such connections as form a strong 
confirmation of this view. When, after our Lord had 
entered upon His public ministry, His mother and kindred 
were announced as desirous of speaking with Him, He 
turned to His disciples, and said, ^'Behold my mother and 
my brethren." (Matt. xii. 40.) When, again, the woman 
exclaimed, '' Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the 
paps which thou hast sucked," ''Yea, rather blessed," 

f (pavepcoais 66^r,^ ; Manifesting the Divine power — the Shekinah which 
dwelt in him. 



104 CHAPTER III. 

replied He, ''are they that hear the word of God and keep 
it.'' (Luke xi. 21.) Her maternal relation, as such, there- 
fore, implied a blessedness inferior to that of the humblest 
of His hearers. In the narrative of this chapter, His 
mother is invited as well as His disciples ; and seems to 
have been apprized of His design to perform some miracle, 
or perhaps merely remembered the memorable scenes of 
His youth ; at all events, she applied to Him when the 
wine was deficient, and, though his answer (ywrj) is free 
from the roughness which the English version implies. He 
plainly forbids her interference, and intimates that His 
filial reverence, which as man He expressed on the cross, 
did not extend to any question connected with His minis- 
try. The idea of the Yirgin's intercession with her Son, 
or with God, therefore. He himself condemns. '' There is 
one mediator between God and man, the man Christ 
Jesus.'' (1 Tim. ii. 5 ) Between Him and man none is 
needed, and none is given. Of all who come unto JUm, 
not one shall be cast out. (John vi. 3^.) 

19. Let us now peruse the narrative of this miracle, and 
mark its sis-nificance. The disciples of our 

The miracle ^ ^ 

and its twofold Lord had all been disciples of John. Rigid- 
meaning. 

ness and penitential austerity were the charac- 
teristics of His life. He came neither eating nor drinking. 
Christ came as the model of our race, and begins his work 
by an expression of genial and kindly feeling ; honoring 
with His presence an institution of primeval authority, 
symbolical, moreover, of His own union with His church. 

INTor was the act without even a deeper meaning. He 
came to fulfill the ancient institution. He was grace and 
truth, as opposed not only to the errors of the heathen, but 
as opposed to the shadows of the Jewish law. And this 
object of His coming, this characteristic of the whole 
Gospel, His first miracle was intended to express. All 
His miracles were indeed symbols. They were acted pa- 



§ 3. THE BEGINNING OF SIGNS. 105 

rabies — conveying relief to the suffering — giving evidence 
of His mission, and at the same time exhibiting spiritual 
truth ; so that we claim nothing for this miracle which 
may not be found equally in them all. The miracle con- 
sisted in substituting wine for the water which had been 
put into vessels used in Jewish purification. Water, 
under the Law, was symbolical ; denoting the means of 
inward purity, that ' is, of justification and holiness : its 
antitype or substance, the sacrifice of Christ and the influ- 
ence of the Spirit. Other vessels might have been chosen, 
and the presence of the water was not essential to the per- 
formance of the miracle ; but the miracle would in that 
case have been robbed of its significance. The vessels are 
filled and the water changed, to suggest that for the carnal 
washings of the law, we are to have His blood ; and that 
He came not to destroy that ancient economy, but to fulfill 
and complete it. The Jews, indeed, in their interpretation 
of that dispensation, rejected the idea of typical incom- 
pleteness, and then, as now, maintained that when Mes- 
siah should come, he would not alter or abolish their law. 
The good wine they believed to have been given at the 
commencement of the feast, and not to have been left to 
the close. The principle of the Divine procedure is the 
contrary ; and the reservation of the more glorious dispen- 
sation of God's will till the time of Christ's coming, was 
among the truths incidentally taught in the miracle. 

20. Nor ought we to omit noticing that Christ's first 
manifestation of Himself to His disciples, like Christ's first 
His last, (before He suffered,) sanctified the ffl^tatlls'^im: 
fruit of the vine, and made it the emblem of ^^^^• 
His atoning sacrifice, the shedding of that blood without 
which there is no remission. 

And now may we fitly introduce a few remarks on the 
miracles of our Lord, and on their place in the Gospels. 



106 CHAPTER III. 

21. The success of Christianity is connected in Scrip- 

ture, and by all early Christian writers, with 
the possession on the part of our Lord of mi- 
raculous power. Men believed His message because Divine 
works or miracles, facts, that is, which could not have 
taken place from natural causes, or without superhuman 
aid, attested its truth. To these works our Lord appealed 
as works which none other man did, and as a decisive evi- 
dence of the divinity of His mission. (Matt. xi. 2-6 ; John 
V. 36 ; X. 37, 38.) He healed the sick. He raised the 
dead ; not once only, but in many hundreds of cases ; for 
it is said repeatedly that they brought sick people unto 
Him, and He healed them all. (Matt. iv. 24; xii. 15; 
xiv. 14 ; XV. 30 ; Mark i. 34 ; iii. 10 ; Luke vi. 11 ; ix. 11.) 
He gave the same power to His disciples ; first to the 
twelve, and then to the seventy. After His departure His 
apostles received the power of bestowing this miraculous 
gift on all upon whom they laid their hands ; so that many 
hundreds were thus endowed. Hence the gift of healing is 
spoken of in Scripture as a thing familiarly known, and is 
reckoned among the signs of a Divinely appointed teacher. 
Indeed, in the absence of a ISTew Testament, or of written 
records of the Divine will, miraculous power seems to have 
been a necessary evidence of a communication from God. 

The sufficiency of the evidence which our Lord exhibited 
in this form, was admitted by all and maintained by Him- 
self. (John iii. 2; vii. 31 ; ix. 30-33; xi. 41, 48 ; xv. 24; 
Acts ii. 22.) 

22. These actions of our Lord are called in Scripture by 
Miracles called different uamcs ; and each name is instructive. 
Dames f^^aJh -^^ ^^^7 ^^^^^ manifestations of power, they are 
significant. called mighty works ; (Swdfi^u^ ;) as adapted to 
prove the truth of His mission, and to strengthen the faith 
of His disciples, they are called signs ; (aT^fisca ;) as cre- 
ating surprise, they are called wonders ; (tapata ;) while in 



J 



§ 3. THE BEGINNING OF SIGNS. lOT 

John they are called by a title of yet greater significance, 
simply ^'Hls works;" (John vii. 3; ix. 4; xv. 24;) the 
appropriate and natural acts, that is, of one who was him- 
self the mighty God, and a wonder (tspa^) to the people. 

That they were justly called mighty works, is plain ; for 
since the beginning of the world, as the man in 
the Gospel reasoned, hath it not been heard 
that a man opened the eyes of the blind ; or, could a man 
do these works unless God were with him ? (John iii. 2 ; 
X. 21.) They were embodiments of divine power. 

That they were wonders, too, is clear, for the people 
were astonished at them. And indeed our Sa- 
viour had occasion, more than once, to rebuke 
the sensuous curiosity with which the crowds followed and 
watched him, not that they might receive instruction, but 
that they might see the miracles which He did. (John iv. 48.) 

In what sense and to what degree they were sipis — evi- 
dences, that is, of His divine mission — is a more 
difficult question ; and yet it may be readily 
solved. 

The religion of the Bible, it must be remembered, is the 
only- one founded on properly miraculous evidence. In 
Mahometanism there is not a single miracle belonging to 
the history of the false prophet alleged as evidence of his 
mission. The systems of heathenism submit no such cre- 
dentials ; and even in the case of John the Baptist, he 
wrought no miracles, because he made no addition to the 
previous economy. He sought to restore all things ; to 
revive, as far as he might, the spirit of the Law, by 
preaching repentance to those who had broken it ; and so 
to prepare for the coming of Christ. Christ came preach- 
ing faith in His own mission ; and miracles were the appro- 
priate evidence of His authority. It is not, therefore, as if we 
had to judge between various religious systems, all profess- 
ing to be founded on miraculous evidence ; for in this respect 



108 ■ CHAPTER III. 

the Bible stands alone. The only question is, whether the 
evidence is credible and decisive. Peruse any of the narra- 
tives of these miraculous vt^orks, and let the reader ask him 
self the following questions : Were they done in public ? 
"Were they acts of which men's senses could judge ? If 
they were, it is impossible that men could be deceived at 
the time. Then let him ask himself besides : Were public 
monuments kept up, and outward actions performed in 
memory of these events publicly performed ; and have such 
monuments, set up at the time they were wrought, been 
continued without intermission ? And, if so, it is equally 
impossible that deception should have been practised in 
any subsequent age.* We can but indicate the rules 
which are admitted to be infallible as tests of the reality of 
apparently miraculous appearances. 

The only alternative open to the malicious suggestion 
of an opponent are — either Christ wilfully deceived the 
people, or was Himself deceived. He deceived the people ! 
But how ? He introduced his religion among enemies, who 
rejected and contemned Him, and who throughout narrowly 
watched (TtapfT-jJpoi;!^) His proceedings, and sought occasion 
against Him. And why ? He foresaw and foretold His 
own death. He promised His disciples persecution and 
suffering, He enforced and practised universal holiness. 
He was himself deceived ! Whence, then, the sobriety and 
beauty of his precepts, the disheartening faithfulness of his 
warnings, the contrast between his teaching and the expec- 
tations of his countrymen ? No one mark of either enthu- 
siasm or imposture is to be found in Him. 

23. If, after all, we set aside the evidence supplied by 
If these mira- thcsc miraclcs, wc must then suppose a miracle 
fgrelterm^al greater than all. If Christ was not from 
cie IS admitted. Qq^^ ^q j^ave then a Jewish peasant changing 

^' See Leslie's Short and Easy MetJwd wilh the Deists. 



§ 3. THE BEGINNING OF SIGNS. 109 

the religion of the world ; weaving, with the story of his 
life, the fulfillment of ancient predictions, and a morality 
of the purest order, as unlike the traditional teaching of 
his countrymen, as it was superior to the precepts of Gen- 
tile philosophy ; anticipating and enduring, with most un- 
earthly composure, intense suffering, and inducing his fol- 
lowers to submit to similar sufferings, and many of them to 
a cruel death, in support, not so much of opinions, as of 
alleged facts, beginning with the miracle of his birth, and 
ending with the miracle of his resurrection. We have, then, 
these followers, ^^ unlearned men,'' going forth and dis- 
coursing upon the sublimest themes ; persuading the occu- 
piers of Grecian and Roman cities to cast away their idols, 
to renounce the religion of their fathers, to reject the 
instruction of their philosophy, and to receive instead, as a 
teacher sent from God, a Jew of humble station, who had 
nothing earthly to offer but persecution and poverty, and 
who had himself been put to a shameful death. To 
receive this explanation of the admitted facts, is to receive 
a greater miracle than any which the Bible contains. 

24. The appropriate effect of these miracles on those 
who witnessed them, is told us in John vi. 14. The effect of 

'' Then those men, on seeing the miracle that *^""" ^^^'^'^"'• 
Jesus did, said. This is of a truth that prophet that should 
come into the world." And the appropriate effect of the 
record that contains them, is told us in John xx. 30, 31 : 
*'And many other signs did Jesus, in the presence of his 
disciples, which are not written in this book. But these 
are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, 
the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life 
through his name." 

25. Very obvious are the distinctions between the mira- 
cles of the New Testament and those of the Difforence bc- 
Old. The miracles of Moses are generally of ^^^^rTo^lt""^ 
an external kind only ; wrought on nature and "^^""^ miracles. 

10 



110 ' CHAPTER III. 

the elements ; adapted rather to lay hold on what may be 
called the lower powers of the soul, and of the imagination 
especially. In the miracles of the New Testament, we 
The latter exhi- ^^^ ^ higher Spiritual character. They were 
c'^andof J^S- never performed for effect, never for the per- 
tuai power. gonal advantage of those who wrought them. 
They are all (with perhaps one exception) exhibitions 
of mercy, showing that physical nature is under God's 
control, as prophecy shows also that history is. They are 
all, moreover, didactic, teaching, in a most significant form, 
the great spiritual truths of the Gospel ; and they often 
seem to enter in a remarkable way upon the peculiar pro- 
vince of God. Of this last kind is the cure of leprosy ; a 
disease which was regarded as a sign of the displeasure of 
God ; inflicted, and only to be removed by Him (2 Kings 
V. Y). So, too, when our Lord cast out devils. He showed 
His power, not so much over material nature, as over the 
author of evil himself. 

26. Between the miracles of our Lord and those of His 
disciples, may also be noted a marked distinc- 
mirlciS of ^ tion. Theirs were wrought in His name : His 
So^foniis were wrought in His own. He had the power 
Apostles. .^ Himself. In them, on the contrary, it seems | 

to have been developed according to their faith. (Matt. x. 
1-8 ; xvi. 19.) This power, it may be added, seems to 
have lasted for some time after the apostles had been with- 
drawn, until the foundation of the church was completely 
laid ; and then (with the last generation on which their 
hands were laid) it gradually disappeared from the world. 



§ 4. CHRIST^S FIRST PUBLIC ACT. Ill 

Sect. 4. — Christ's First Public Act. 

2Y. By way of Capernaum our Lord now pays his first 
public visit to Jerusalem at the feast of the Christ drives 
Passover, and as his first public act, he pro- fro'nJ't^e tem- 
ceeds to the temple. Here he found the traders ^^^' 
changing the Roman denarius and Grecian drachma for 
the Jewish shekel, and all these for coins of a lower deno- 
mination. The first only were received by the Roman 
collectors, and the last only at the temple treasury. Here 
also were sold the victims used in the Jewish worship. 
All this business was transacted within the precincts of 
the temple (fo Ispov)^ and involved an unseemly union of 
things secular and sacred. The whole was conducted, 
moreover, in a spirit of grasping, godless gain, little less 
guilty than theft. Our Lord, therefore, took occasion to 
rebuke both evils, and at the same time to indicate one 
purpose of His coming. He appeared to purify the house 
of God, and to free it from earthly defilement. This object 
He symbolized both now at the commencement of His 
ministry, and afterwards at its close, by the act 

•^ ' ' "^ And again at 

of purifying the court of the outer sanctuary, the dose of nis 
The boldness of His conduct is sufficiently 
clear, and seems to have excited the surprise of the Sanhe- 
drim ; for on both occasions they asked Him for His autho- 
rity, and hinted that what was done, was defensible only 
on the supposition of His having a Divine commission. 
(John ii. 18 ; Mark xi. 28. The answer he gave them 
clearly implied that he was himself, in a very emphatic 
sense, the temple of God, with no common des- ^ ^ 

' ^ ' Both acts ex- 

tiny ;* and the announcement was afterwards preesive of au- 

•^ ' thority. 

employed, although in a perverted form, against 
Himself. (Matt. xxvi. 61.) 

* vaos, it will be noticed, is the word he uses, and not Ispoy, 



112 CHAPTER III. 

28. Once more, between these two scenes, He intimated 
Another signi- ^^^ conncctlon wltli tlic tcmplc in another form. 
rehi^?on^\oVe When the Jewish officer demanded the pay. 
temple. mcnt of the temple tax, (half a shekel from each 
Jew,) He suggested that as the Son of God He was 
properly free (Matt. xvii. 21) ; though not unwilling on 
other grounds to admit their claim. 

29. Most of the other acts of our Lord display the 

mildness of love — this displays its severity. 

An instance of . . _ , ^ , i . i 

our Lord's se- As the first was showu to the modest ana 

Teritv 

the humble, so was the second to the froward 
and shameless ; sometimes by deeds, as here, but more 
generally only by strong and withering rebuke. See Matt, 
xxiv. ; Luke xix. 21, 

Sect 5. — Christ's First Discourse. 

30. This act of our Lord could not fail to turn men's 
thoughts to Himself. He had come up from Galilee to 
Jerusalem as a Jew of humble rank, and with four or five 
followers, belonging, apparently, to the same class. His 
expulsion of the traders from the temple, and His miracles, 
excited much interest ; and many began to regard him as 
a divine prophet ; some, perhaps, as the prophet, though 
they had, no doubt, the most inaccurate notions of the 
design of the Messiah's mission, and of the nature of the 
kingdom which he was to establish. 

25. Among this number was Mcodemus, a member of 
the sect of the Pharisees, and a ruler of the 

Character and .n i • 

purpose of Nic- Jcws; a councillor, that is, or member of the 
Sanhedrim, the highest Jewish judicial court, 
and an expositor of the Jewish law. He probably, like the 
rest of his countrymen, looked for a temporal deliverer ; but 
seems to have been a man of a candid and thoughtful mind. 
That he expected to find in Christ the promised Messiah, 
is not at all probable. He must hate known that the Mes- 



§ 5. Christ's first discourse. 113 

siah was to come, not from Nazareth, but from Bethlehem ; 
nor can he be supposed to have sought for him in an obscure 
Galilean stranger, when he must have known that the Mes- 
siah, '' the Prince," was to descend from the ancient royal 
house of David. He came, therefore, to have some private 
conversation with this stranger, respecting that kingdom 
of God which Jesus and John had both declared to be at 
hand ; and as his interview might have been attended with 
inconvenience, if not with danger, should his colleagues 
nappen to hear of it, he made it as private as possible, and 
therefore, came to Jesus by night. He introduced himself 
by acknowledging his conviction that Christ was a teacher 
come from God ; and was about to announce the object of 
his visit, when Christ interrupted, and answered, (as he 
often did,) the thoughts of the inquirer. (See John vi. 26, 
35, 64, 65; John viii. T.) 

31. Instead of showing Himself flattered by the recog- 
nition of His divine mission by a man of such Christ explains 
rank and influence. He in effect states that i^sidngXm!^ 
His visitor was entirely mistaken on the subject ^hlch'mln^^^ 
about which he came to converse ; and that, ®^^^^ ^*- 
without a complete change, both of feeling and of thought, 
he could never see (that is, he could neither understand nor 
enter) the kingdom of which he doubtless deemed himself a 
member. '' Except a man, Jew as well as Gentile, undergo 
a thorough and radical change — such a change as lays the 
foundation of a new life — he cannot see the kingdom of 
God.'^ That such words might have been addressed to a 
Gentile heathen, Nicodemus would perhaps have allowed ; 
but that they should be addressed to one who, as a Jew, 
was already a child of the kingdom, was to him quite 
incomprehensible — so much so, that the literal, rather than 
the figurative meaning of our Lord's words, seemed the 
more natural to him, though that meaning seemed scarcely 
possible. ^' How can a man be born," said he, " when he 

10* 



114 CHAPTER III. 

is old ? Can he enter a second time into Ms mother's 
womb, and be born ?''* Our Lord repeats His statement, 
and adds an explanation or two that might serve to make 
it more intelligible. ''Verily, verily," says He, ''except 
a man be born, not naturally and of blood, as you have 
supposed, but of water and of the Spirit — of a pure and 
spiritual influence — he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 
All the outgoings of flesh are flesh, human and sinful ; 
that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. All that is holy, 
and fitted therefore for my kingdom, is, in its origin and 
nature, not fleshly and natural, but spiritual and divine. 
ISTor is it an objection to this doctrine that men have no 
notion how this inward change is produced, or how it 
differs from the natural workings of the human mind. 
Under the old economy the Spirit breathed in inspiring 
the prophets as he pleased ; why or how none can tell : 
men only heard ' his voice,' and received his communica- 
tions. In nature, too, ' the wind bloweth where it listeth ;' 
its power is acknowledged, though none can tell ' whence 
it Cometh and whither it goeth.' So in my kingdom the 
reason and the manner of Divine operations are not known, 
but their results only. (John iii. 5-8.) ' Thus it is with 
every one that is born of the Spirit.' "f 

This explanation completes the perplexity of the inquirer. 
How an internal spiritual change can be necessary for one 
who is already a Jew, is inconceivable. Therefore, says 
he, "How CAN these things be?" "The kingdom of 
heaven is ours. We are already its subjects, and only wait 
its appearance." Our Lord again replies that the truth 
ought to have been familiar to him as a reader of the 

* That this is the stress of the passage, is highly probable; v/^oj 
ysvvridnvat ario^ev seems the emphasis. 

t The fact that Trvevjjia is used in both verses of the original, makes the 
English translation rather forced. Both meanings, therefore, are em- 
bL>dled above. 



§ 5. Christ's first discourse. 115 

ancient Scriptures — referring, probably, to passages in 
which God sets forth the necessity of an internal, spiritual 
change, and his intention to effect such a change in the 
days of the Messiah ; (Ezekiel xxxvi. 25, 2Y ; Jer. xxxi. 
31, 33 ;) or perhaps intimating that the law itself ought to 
have awakened within him a conviction of his own need. 
*' Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these 
things ?" Again our Lord rebukes his ignorance, and 
asks how he can be prepared for further disclosures, if 
facts so immediately within his own cognizance be misun- 
derstood or unknown. ^' If I have told you earthly things 
and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of 
heavenly things?" (v. 10-12.) ''The doctrine I have 
taught you is within the domain of your own conscious- 
ness. It is part of ancient prophecy. It is the great 
lesson of the law. Spiritual subjects alone are fit for a 
spiritual kingdom ; and if this truth, which can be verified 
on earth, be not understood, my revelation of heavenly 
things will be incredible and useless." 

32. The nature of this kingdom, however, he proceeds 
to explain in terms that convey the most im- Further ex- 
portant truths, and in a permanent form, p^*^'^^^- 
though the whole is especially adapted to the views of a 
Pharisaic Jew, laboring under the mistaken notions common 
to his nation and sect. The question which Nicodemus 
had come to ask, had reference to the kingdom of the Mes- 
siah ; and if his feelings had been uttered in words, he 
would probably have said, ''The coming kingdom is at 
hand. Tell me when it will appear. Messiah is to be 
lifted up, and exalted to a glorious throne. The Jews are to 
be delivered from their degradation. Christ, the Son of the 
Father, is their ruler. The Gentiles are to be punished and 
destroyed, such only excepted as submit themselves willingly 
to the authority of the chosen race. All Jews will, of course, 
have their part in this kingdom ; but tell me what is the 



116 CHAPTER III. 

time of its appearance, and what are the rules and require- 
ments of its service V^ The reply of our Lord is deeply 
significant. ''Messiah," says He, ''the Son of Man, who 
is at once in heaven and on earth, shall indeed be exalted, 
(v'^Jj6Efai,) but it will be as the serpent was 
spiritual, uni- lifted up iu the wilderness. The design of 

Tersal, and , t n 

founded oa tWs arrangement is not Israel's temporal de- 
liverance, but man's spiritual and everlasting 
salvation ; and the means of this salvation is not submis- 
sion to Judaism, or any outward connection with the 
ancient economy, but a believing confidence in this mes- 
sage, and in the person and office of him who reveals it. 
Tor God so loved,' not Israel only, but 'the world, that 
he devoted to death (gave) his only begotten Son, that 
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have 
everlasting life.'" "And so decisive is this law, that all 
who do not believe, whether they be Jews or Gentiles, 
shall be excluded from the blessings of the kingdom of 
Christ, and be punished for the rejection of his message." 
Nor is that all. For, while the rejection of the message 
may condemn many, the willful neglect of it, the avoidance 
of the element of light, and the love of darkness will con- 
demn more. * And this is the condemnation, that light is 
come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, 
because their deeds are evil.' (v. 14-21.) Here the discourse 
with Nicodemus ends.* The rest of the chapter is occu- 
pied with a further explanation of our Lord's office, and an 
additional testimony from His forerunner, John the Bap- 
tist. What effect was produced by the whole on the mind 
of Nicodemus is not told us ; but that it did not fail to 
produce some impression, is quite clear from the latter 
chapters of this history, (vii. 50 ; xix. 39.) 

^ Olshausen, Neander, and others, think that it ends with the 16th 

verse. 



§ 5. Christ's first discourse. lit 

83. The great facts of this narrative are exceedingly sig- 
nificant. At the very outset of His ministry, ^j^p ^^^^. 
our Saviour foretells His death, reveals His GotpligL^n 
own character as ^'the only begotten Son of this discourse. 
God," and as *'the Son of Man;" unfolds the design of 
His mission, not to condemn even the guiltiest, but ''that 
the world through Him may be saved ;" sets forth the 
means of the accomplishment of this design — His exaltation 
on the cross. His sacrificial death, and the way in which 
an interest in the blessings He secured may be obtained — • 
a living faith ; traces the origin of this economy to the 
mercy and love of God, and warns men of the punishment 
to be inflicted on all who neglect His message. The con- 
dition of the world as perishing, the need of an inward, 
holy change on man's part, the adjustment of the claims of 
justice, with the exercise of mercy on God's ; the mighty 
Agent by whose influence this inward change is wrought, 
and the cost of this adjustment, with the end of the whole 
dispensation, that all things may be given into the hands 
of the Son, are fully disclosed, (iii. 35.) The first scenes, 
therefore, of the public ministry of our Lord, shadow forth 
the truths which were embodied, with terrible reality, in the 
last. 

34. Whether the last verses of this chapter were spoken 
by John the Baptist, or by John the Evangelist, 

, 11 . . Importance of 

IS not clear ; but m either case the lesson is m- the last verses 
structive. If the former spoke them, then they 
form an attestation from the lips of the preacher of repent- 
ance, to the impotency of repentance without faith to 
secure salvation : and if the latter, they are as strong an 
attestation from the preacher of love to the reality of the 
Divine judgments, (v. 35, 36.) In the one case, it is the 
preacher of repentance, who bids men to believe ; in the 
other, it is the preacher of love expatiating on the fearful- 
ness of the wrath of God ; and we may be sure it is in 



118 CHAPTER III. 

substance the attestation of both ; ''He that belie veth on 
the Son hath life, and he that believeth not on the Son 
shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.'' 

35. The thing that startles most in this record, is per- 

haps the announcement that the kingdom of 

The kingdom ^ -, , 

of God is not God is not SEEN without the teachmg and re- 
with'out the generating influence of the Spirit. We know as 
^^" * a fact that much may be done in the exposition 

of Scripture, the volume of the mysteries of the kingdom, 
without any supernatural aid. A man may declaim with 
overwhelming energy upon the majestic truths of Provi- 
dence and Grace, may rouse feelings both of tenderness 
and terror, and neither he nor his audience have known 
in any sense that shall influence their eventual salvation, 
one emotion of spiritual life. By thousands the Bible is 
studied as an exercise of the intellect. Reason is strength- 
ened under it. Imagination is delighted with it. The 
gentler affections are even softened and ennobled by it. 
And yet there may be total inward death. The organ 
even that perceives its real import may be wanting in vital 
action ; for it is spiritually discerned. 

36. To complete this view, however, it must be added, 

that the change which the Spirit produces in 

The Spirit re- _ ^ , - i n ^ •. 

Teals no new humau hcarts, IS a change, not of new facul- 
ties for old, but of new objects of affection 
only. It is no part of his work to bestow faculties — some- 
thing which is neither hope, nor fear, nor love ; he simply 
directs those affections to more exalted ends. His whole 
design is manifestly not to annihilate human feelings ; but 
to direct and govern them upon better principles, and un- 
der holy guidance. The change is in the object revealed, 
and in the corresponding attraction of the heart towards 
it. The man, who becomes in Christ Jesus a new creature, 
is not gifted with other eyes ; he only sees what other eyes 
cannot or will not see, and loves what other hearts will 



§ 5. Christ's first discourse. 119 

not love. In mind and heart he is the same man ; only 
with all his heart and with all his mind he serves Christ. 
Every thonght remains, and his faculty of thought ; but 
are all brought into captivity to the obedience of faith. In 
motive, in character, in aim, in the objects of his love, but 
in these, and such as these only, ''old things are past 
away, and behold all things are become new." (2 Cor. 

v. n.) 

8*7. It is only therefore where this change is undergone, 
that the kingdom of God is begun, and it is 
from the seat of this inward change that this gre^s of the 
kingdom spreads — first through the whole man, indfvid^ai^^coi> 
and then through our race. Christ's kingdom 
is not founded on our outward condition, or on the circum- 
stances of our life ; its place is in the soul. Sincere repen- 
tance and deep personal faith are its prerequisites ; and 
they supply the exact measure of all amelioration, private 
and social ; truths self-evident, and yet constantly over- 
looked. Each vice and grievance, the whole mass of evil 
which afflicts society, is apt to be charged upon faulty in- 
stitutional arrangements, upon laws, or want of laws ; and 
can be removed (it is thought) only by external appliances. 
T'he world (it is held) must be mended before its inhabit- 
ants can be better. Men, therefore, attempt to get the 
reign of righteousness established first ; and then, it is sup- 
posed, individual moral renovation will begin. '' Set up 
the kingdom, and citizens will enter and be enrolled." But 
the Scripture scheme reverses this order. It teaches that 
new systems of society cannot perfect individuals, but that 
individuals must first find in themselves the germs of nobler 
systems ; and that those germs have their origin, not in 
considerations of selfishness, nor in the gratification of any 
thing purely human, but in the awakening of a life that is 
divine. '' Except a man be horn anew^ he cannot see the 
kingdom of God." 



120 CHAPTER III. 



Sect. 6. — Christ's First Journey. 

38. The attention which Christ's ministry had now ex- 
cited induced Him to leave Judaea, where his disciples had 
already baptized several converts (John iii. 22 ; iv. 1), 
Christ visits ^^^ ^^ resolvcd to rcvisit Galilee. On his 
Samaria. y^^j jj^ wcut through Samaria ; thus intimating 

at the outset that, though his labors were to begin at Je- 
rusalem, they were not to end there. After traveling 
between twenty and thirty miles, He reached at mid-day 
the ancient city of Sychar, and being wearied with His 
The well of jonmcy, sat and rested himself near the well, 
Sychar. which. Seventeen hundred years before, Jacob 

had purchased of the people of the country. In the mean 
time His disciples went into the city '^to buy bread." 
While they were gone, a poor woman of loose character 
visited the place to draw water. As was His custom, 
Christ availed himself of the opportunity, and conversed 
with her, telling her of the ^'living water" 
which He was able to supply. She thought 
only of a running spring ; and as Christ found it impossible 
to get her to understand His meaning, He pointedly re- 
minds her of her guilt, and discovers to her His knowledge 
of her true condition. She in return acknowledged Him 
to be a prophet, and immediately consults Him on the 
great controversy between the Samaritans and the Jews ; 
chiefly, however, to avoid continued attention to herself. 
That this was her motive is plain from the fact that the 
question she asks is one of purely historical interest ; the 
temple at Mount Gerizim having been destroyed more than 
Spiritual wor- ^ hundred years before. In His reply Christ 
ship. condemns the origin of the Samaritan schism, 

rebukes the unmeaning formalism of the worship of her 
nation, and assures her that the time was now come when 



§ 6. Christ's first journey. 121 

true worshipers were to worship the Father neither in that 
mountain, nor yet in Jerusalem only, but everywhere in 
spirit and in reality not externally (aapxv), but with the 
heart (Tiv^v/xaTi) ; not in shadows, but in substance and in 
truth (dx>7^fca*). He then revealed himself to her as the 
Christ ; and His declaration, connected with the recollec- 
tion of His previous disclosures concerning her own history, 
led her to believe. To impart her convictions, and partly 
to confirm them, she hastens to her fellow-citizens, and 
with the natural exaggeration of a new convert, said, 
^' Come see a man which told me all things that ever I did ; 
is not this the Christ ?" (John iv. 1-29.) 

Ever true to the great end of His calling, and finding 
His bodily frame strengthened by His work, our Lord, 
immediately after the woman had withdrawn, seeks to 
deepen spiritual life in the minds of His disciples. He had 
spoken to the woman of living water, and now He speaks 
of living bread ; and answers their request that He would 
eat, and their wondering unbelief of His meaning, (v. 34,) 
by reminding them that, to do the will of God Activity itseii 
from the heart, is itself the source of spiritual s^stainmg. 
and even of physical strength. 

Before the lesson is quite learned, their attention is 
called to a new scene. From the city crowds follow the 
woman towards the well where the stranger is seated, and 
the ripening harvest suggests an appropriate image both of 
their numbers, and of the results of our Saviour's message, 
(v. 35.) For the first time Christ is invited to remain 
with them, and in the end very many believed : 

. Manybelieye. 

some for the saying oi the woman, but many 

more because of His own word ; ^^ for," said they, '' we have 

heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the 

*" Here, as frequently, d\fi^eia must be taken to mean the opposite of 
oKidf not of ipev^os'f substance rather than truth. 

11 



L 



122 CHAPTER III. 

Christ, the Saviour of the world. '^ (v. 42.) This is the 

first awakening on a large scale, and has few 

success of the parallels during our Lord's personal ministry. 

^^^^ * Ordinarily the seed of the kingdom found a 

resting-place in only individual hearts — ^here it is deposited 
in the hearts of the people generally, producing results 
which became in this very district still more extensive in 
the first age of the church. (Acts viii. 5-8.) 

39. It is to us peculiarly instructive that the first exten- 
Aciiieved with- ^^^'^ succcss of the Gospcl mcssagc was mani- 
out miracles, fggted amoug thosc who witnessed no miracle. 
The message itself seems to have been to this people an 
evidence of its truth. They heard the words of our Lord, 
and in simple faith they believed. 

In the whole narrative, too, there is much that is in- 
structive, especially in relation to the provisions of the 
Gospel, and the nature of true worship. The living water 
that Christ e-ives, His Spirit, His doctrine 

Christ Himself . , ^ . . ^ ^ i , , . 

the living wa- itsclf, IS Said to qucuch the thirst and satisfy 

ter. 

the desires of all who drink. The longings 
of the mind are drawn away by it from all transitory things, 
and are fixed upon the continued enjoyment of the bless- 
ings which are here rendered accessible to man ; and in 
that continued enjoyment all human desire is fulfilled. 
''Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, 
shall never thirst." 

Let us illustrate this truth. If men need pardon^ and 
Meets the de- listcu to the diviuc mcssagc, ''It is a faithful 
sire for pardon, g^^-^^ ^^^ worthy of all acceptation, that 

Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners," "being 

justified by faith," they "have peace with God." If they 

need holiness, and remember belie vine'lv the 

Holiness. 11.^1. 

truth that Christ came to redeem men from 
all iniquity, (Tit. ii. 14,) and to present them perfect be- 
fore the presence of His Father, that the certaintv of this 



§ 6. Christ's first journey. 123 

result is secured by the power of tlie truth, by the influence 
of the Spirit, by the reward due to Christ's suffering, by 
the oath and character of God, they become holy. If amid 
ten thousand foes they need conscious safety ^ 
let them remember that He that is with them 
is mightier than all that are against them ; that God will 
not suffer (1 Cor. x. 13) them to be tempted above what 
they are able to bear ; and they will feel secure. If they 
need happinesSj in spite of saddening change 
and multiplied affliction, Christ reminds them 
that they are to ''take no thought.'' ''All things" are 
theirs ; the world itself being but the scaffolding of the 
church ; God has not spared His own Son, and will as- 
suredly, having given Him, give with Him all things ; that 
they have moreover in heaven a more enduring substance. 
If they need preparation for death^ they may remember 
that those who believe in Christ never die: 

, , _ . . , T . , . Eternal life. 

that to them death is but a change m the cir- 
cumstances of their life ; and that though that change is it- 
self terrible, with its groans, and agonies, and dying strife, it 
is but a shadow with which they contend — a foe, yet an un- 
substantial one ; while even in that conflict God is with 
them, His rod and His staff, the symbol of His power, and 
His sustaining word, comforts them. This, then, is our 
Lord's teaching. Let men but receive the doctrine and 
Spirit of Christ, and the largest desires of their heart — for 
pardon, for safety, for holiliess, for present and future hap- 
piness — are all fulfilled. Drinking of the water He gives, 
they " shall never thirst." And now the figure is changed. 
The water which thus meets the desires of all Christians, is 
also a diffusive and fructifying stream, blessing others as 
well as themselves ; nor does it rest till, bearing along all 
who are partakers of it, it has reached the eternal fountain 
whence it sprung (ver. 10-14). 



124 CHAPTER III. 

40. ISTot less striking are the sublime disclosures which 
Christ here makes on the nature of spiritual 

The nature of . i /» n /» i . i . 

Fpirituai wor- servicc, and on the folly oi m.aking our worship 
depend on our presence amid scenes of imagi- 
nary sacredness. *' The hour is coming, when neither in 
this mountain, nor yet in Jerusalem, shall men worship the 
Father. '^ (v. 21.) He, in this one sentence, overturns a 
whole host of Jewish predilections, and lays the basis of 
the spiritual consecration of the Gospel. 

Under the earlier dispensation God had specially visited 
various scenes ; but without making them by 
Christ's teach- His visit the morc suitable for purposes of wor- 
jcd; to the'an- ship. Moscs reared no altar at the burning 
economy. |^^g^^ though God's prcscuce for the time made 
it holy. Joshua put no permanent structure for worship 
on the place which had been pressed by the feet of the 
Captain of the Lord's host, though this, too, for the time 
of the vision, was also holy. Even several visits to a spot 
did not consecrate it as a place where worship would be 
peculiarly acceptable. Moses therefore pitched no taberna- 
cle amid the crags of Sinai, honored as its rocky heights 
had been by the cloud, and flame, and voice, and law. 
Nor did even the selection of a place by God Himself for 
purposes of worship make it holy, independently of the 
character of the worshipers, and of His own immediate 
presence. He chose the threshing-floor of Oman for the site 
of His temple, and as the place where He would put His 
name ; yet when thus designated, and crowned by an edifice 
which was planned by Himself and built by His chosen 
servant, it was not truly consecrated till God Himself came 
there, and the Shekinah settled in glory upon the mercy-seat 
between the wings of the cherubim. It was God's stay in 
the place, therefore, that gave it sacredness ; and when man 
wrought provocation and idolatries there, this sacredness 
passed away. 



§ 6. Christ's first journey. 125 

So it was in earlier times with Bethel, where Jacob 
and his children long after him worshipped. In the 
time of the prophets, it was called no more Bethel (God's 
house), but Bethaven, because idolatry had made it the 
** house of vanity." So in later times with Jerusalem, the 
wickedness of Manasseh profaned the temple, and the sym- 
bols of the Divine presence were withdrawn. (Ezek. x. 4, 18.) 

This great truth, — that holiness is not the place where 
God has been, that it is not even in the place which God 
has selected, but in the Divine presence itself, — had been, 
towards the end of the Jewish dispensation, gradually per- 
verted and forgotten. Men attached to the place the 
reverence due only to God. They forgot that the char- 
acter of the worshipers, even under that dispensation, 
might affect and destroy the sacredness of the Sanctuary 
itself ; and they did not understand that Christ was come 
to call attention to the nature of true worship. 

No sanctity of 

and to mve prominence to a truth which was place under 

^ ' ^x. lA A An the Gospel. 

wrapped up m the old economy, and readily 
discoverable, but which the worldly minds of the Jews had 
overlooked or disregarded. The sanctity of places was 
about to pass away. Instead of one spot, all regions were 
about to become available for worship. When Christ had 
risen, therefore, the temple, though still retaining to the eyes 
of the Jews its old glory, had lost it to the spiritual and in- 
structed disciples. Its sacrifices were now unmeaning after 
the great oblation of Golgotha. Its veil was rent at the cruci- 
fixion, and its holy place made common. In prospect of this 
event Christ disowned it : ''Your house is left unto you deso- 
late." It was still rich in marble, and purple, and gold ; but 
its Great Inhabitant was gone, and it was a temple no more. 
Another dispensation had been introduced, and a far 
different worship. Let us mark these worship- mustrated in 
ers, and the scene of their meeting. In an men™nh"e 
obscure lane in Jerusalem the disciples are ^ariy church 

11* 



126 CHAPTER III. 

assembled. It is tlie humble resort of humble people, but 
it is the resort of spiritual worshipers. The rushing mighty 
wind of the Holy Spirit has shaken and filled this dwelling ; 
not to remain here, but to rest upon the company that 
occupies it. Henceforth God is with them ; he has no 
longer one site for his temple ; that temple pitches itself 
v/herever his people wander and sojourn. Its sanctity is 
to be ever after in the character of its occupants. 

And it is instructive to notice how, in all the earlier 
arrangements of the Apostolic churches, God's providence 
seems to have developed and confirmed this principle. 
Every thing seems done to guard the disciples against 
practices that might have favored this obsolete idea of a 
local sanctity. *^ If any soil could have retained such a 
quality under the new dispensation, it would have been 
that of Calvary ; but the upper chamber, where the Pente- 
costal baptism of the Holy Ghost was received, was not, 
as far as we have any reason to suppose, built upon the 
spot where Christ's cross was planted. Nor did Joseph 
of Arimathea give up for holy purposes the sepulchre 
where Christ had been buried, and which had been the 
scene of his resurrection. The next in sacredness certainly 
was the Mount of Olives. Near its ridge, tov/ard the 
Jordan, he had raised Lazarus from the dead ; from its 
side towards Jerusalem he had shed tears over the doomed 
city of his murderers — doomed, because she knew not the 
day of her visitation ; near its foot he had suffered the 
anguish of Gethsemane ; from its summit he ascended to 
the skies."* Yet it was not here that the first houses of 
prayer were erected, and the lesson is thus rendered com- 
God is where- pl^tc. The sauctity of our dispensation belongs 
rrd t'me^wo?- ^^ *^^ worshipcrs and to the service ; not to 
shippers are. ^-^^ ^i^^^^ jf christ's truth and ordinances 

* Dr. Williams. 



§ Y. THE FIRST REJECTION OF CHRIST. 127 

are administered, and there are spiritual worshipers, there 
is He ; the waiting heart every where meets a waiting 
God: 

" "Where'er we seek him he is found, 
And every place is hallowed ground." 

How touching that these truths were first delivered to one 
who had no earthly temple, and to whom they must have 
come, not only as a rebuke, but as the richest conso- 
lation 1 

Sect. 7. — The First Rejection of Christ by his 
Countrymen. 

41. To complete the view we have given of Christ's 
entrance upon his ministry, we need last of all q^^^^^ ^j^^j^g 
to contemplate the result of His labors in ^'^zareth. 
Nazareth, ^' where he had been brought up." His work 
began, as we have seen, at Cana, where he wrought his 
first miracle. His miraculous powers were next put forth 
in Jerusalem, (John iv. 45,) though nothing is told of the 
works He performed there. At Jerusalem, too. He ex- 
plained to Nicodemus the doctrine of regeneration, and 
announced His own sacrifice. Afterwards His mission was 
attested for the third time (John iii. 30) by John the 
Baptist ; and subsequently to this last attestation, Jesus 
proceeds through Samaria ; till at length He reaches the 
place where He had resided for several years. When at 
Cana, on His way. He wrought His second miracle in 
Galilee ; healing a nobleman's son, who was lying sick at 
the neighboring town of Capernaum. (John iv. 46-54.) 

42. At Nazareth He was known as a poor and appa- 
rently unlettered man. He was regarded as the son of a 
carpenter ; He had himself exercised the same craft in the 
place.* His immediate connections were also still there — 

* Hence Mark says thoy called him the carpenter, (5 n'/cro;/.) Matthew 



128 CHAPTER III. 

His motlier and His relatives — the reputed father having 
probably died some time before. Here Christ entered the 
iicad5 and an- sjnagogue, and, being invited, stood up and 
office Tn the ^^^^ providentially, or perhaps in the ordinary 
synagogue. course of reading, part of the 61st chapter of 
Isaiah. In that passage the prophet speaks of one who 
was yet to be revealed, and to whom the title of *'the 
servant of the Lord'' was to be peculiarly applicable. 
This servant is anointed, or consecrated by the Spirit for a 
great work, not so much of majesty as of condescension > 
of miraculous love rather than of miraculous power. *' The 
Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for He hath anointed Qxpf^^^^) 
me to preach the Gospel to the poor ; he hath sent me to 
heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the cap- 
tives, and recovering of sight to the blind ; to set at liberty 
them that are bruised, and to preach the acceptable year 
of the Lord'' — the year, that is, of acceptance and of 
release. The whole passage our Lord explains as fulfilled 
in himself, whom, therefore, He represents as the Messiah^ 
the Anointed One, the Christ. 

43. This disclosure was simple, and appropriate to the 
occasion. In Nazareth Christ was known as 

Appropriate- 

nessofhismes- poor ; He therefore reveals Himself as the 
friend of the poor. The Nazarenes were of 
old despised, and to the despised and broken-hearted. He 
tells them. He came. As soon as He had delivered the 
message, He saw at once that His hearers could not pene- 
trate the concealing cloud of earthly circumstances which 
veiled his glory. They knew His connections, and deemed 
Him one of themselves. At first, indeed, they were pleased 
with His communication, and were constrained to acknow- 
ledge that a Divine grace pervaded it; but ultimately 
their earthly conceptions prevailed. (Luke iv. 24.) Christ 

says they called him (h tov reKTovog vlo^) the son of a carpenter; and, no 
doubt, both descriptions are employed. 






§ T. THE FIRST REJECTION OF CHRIST. 129 

had foreseen this issue, and now showed them at once their 
failing. '' Ye will say to me," said He, ^'phy- Bemonstrf.teg 
sician, heal thyself." '' Thou hast spoken of fo^'^thdrCS 
our poverty, remove thine own ; of our being ^^^^* 
fretted and exhausted in heart, art thou less so than we ? 
Heal thyself, and we may believe." How unworthy these 
thoughts ! It was not of the earthly poor He had spoken ; 
though, as ever. His language was sufficiently mysterious 
to mislead the negligent. Nor does true benevolence heal 
itself in the first instance, though selfishness may prefer 
that order. Both parts of their reply, therefore, are 
degrading. '' Show us at least (as our Lord continues to 
express their feelings) such miracles as thou hast exhibited 
elsewhere ; and let us share the benefit that Capernaum has 
received."* But Christ saw their unbelief. (Matt. xiii. 58 ; 
Mark vi. 6.) '^ Prophets have least honor," says he again, 
''among their relatives, and in their father's house." The 
divine or heavenly element in holy characters becomes con- 
cealed, or is overlooked through familiarity ; and one who 
has seemed near in the flesh, cannot easily be regarded as 
superior in the spirit. ^* And besides," He adds, " God has 
always been a sovereign in the gifts of his grace, and in 
the exercise of that sovereignty has been free to pity and 
heal the distant, withholding the blessing from those that 
are near." The fact was undoubted. It ought to have 
humbled, and might have cheered them. But their pride 
had been wounded, and they proceeded to drive 

Is rejected. 

out their prophet, and so to fulfill His own 
intimation. They were even bent upon taking His life ; 
but ''He, passing through the midst of them, nardiy escapes 
went His way," miraculously withdrawing that ^^^-^ i^^s life. 
teaching which would have proved its miraculous power in 
saving them, if only they had believed. (Luke iv. 30.) 

* Those miracles are said to be done €ig Karfcpvaovfi, 



130 CHAPTER in. 

Matthew and Mark intimate, in conclusion, that Jesus 
performed few miracles in Nazareth ; Mark adding, that 
He healed a few sick people only, by laying His hands upon 
them ; and that he could not do any mighty work there, 
because of their unbelief. 

44. Faith is here very strikingly taught as a condition 
Faith on man's indispcusable to the prudent exercise of mira- 
part essential. c^iQ^jg powcr. As God cau savc uo impenitcut 
sinner, as such, who refuses to humble himself for his 
sin, so Christ cannot heal where faith is wanting. The 
aim of miracles, therefore, was not first of all to create 
faith in those who were the subjects of them ; but at 
most, to purify and confirm it. They presuppose faith, 
w^hich is clearly a quality more of the affections than of 
the intellect ; and involves, at least, a willing, receptive, 
and obedient heart. 

45. Nor does this issue of our Lord's labors differ ma- 
The conduct of tcrially from other events in His personal min- 
repealed d'se!' istry. As the fcllow-townsmeu of Christ did 
•where. ^^^ belicve, SO neither at first did his own re- 
latives (John vii. 5) ; nor as a nation did the Jews, for 
^' He came unto His own and His own received Him not ;" 
and therefore ultimately the kingdom of God passed over 
to the Gentiles. Clearly, those who are most familiar with 
Christ may know him least ; and their rejection of Him 
supplies the saddest evidence of the worldliness of human 
conceptions, and of the pride of the human heart. From the 
very first the rule seems to have obtained — '' some believed 
and some believed not." (Acts xxviii. 24.) To a faithful 
minister it is a sad consolation that the failure of his 
ministry in conversion may spring, not from the deficien- 
cies of his own service, but from the guilty unbelief of 
those who hear him. 



I 



§ 8. CHRIST INCARNATE. 131 



Sect. 8. — Christ Incarnate. The Revelation of God 
AND THE Model of Holiness. 

" He that hath seen the Son hath seen the Father." " Walk even as 
he walked." 

46. From the history of our Lord, thus far, it is clear 
that there is a mysterious dignity connected import of the 
with His person. St. John describes him as i^^^^^^^^^- 
the Word made flesh ; and the other Evangelists use ex- 
pressions no less startling and peculiar ; implying as they 
do a nature at once human and divine. This doctrine of 
the incarnation of Christ, '^ God manifest in the flesh," has 
excited much discussion ; and has sometimes been regarded 
as a grave objection to the Christian scheme. A little in- 
quiry, however, will be found not only to justify the doctrine 
itself, but to show that if revelation is to be adapted to 
man's expectations and wants, a God incarnate is one of 
the truths which revelation is most likely to contain. 

41. An infinite being cannot in his nature be known by 
men. God is infinite and absolute. But the 

An Infinite 

idea of an infinite and an absolute being it is heing cannot 

. in his nature 

impossible to describe or conceive. There is he known by 

men. 

nothing in heaven nor on earth which we can 
use to define him ; and all analogies rather confound than 
clear our conceptions. In His own nature He is without 
form ; yet he is neither a point in space nor space without 
limit. He dwells everywhere and always, and is yet with- 
out parts and above time. The only definition we can give 
is His own ; He is the I am — the self-existent Jehovah. 

If we proceed to speak not of his nature but of His 
perfections, our conceptions become, if possible, ^or in his per- 
even less adequate. He thinks ; but free from ^^^^^^^^s. 
w^hat is essential to our thought, succession, and time. He 
reasons without inference ; decides without deliberation ; 



132 CHAPTER III. 

feels without emotion ; acts and rests without movement 
or change. 

48. Wherever therefore God is revealed by creation, it 
must be under conditions in themselves neither 

Where reveal- 
ed, it must be infinite nor spiritual. There is no such thing 

through some . « , 

medium : such in uaturc as an infinite medium of revelation. 

revelation ne- , ^ . . 

cessariiy im- The Ouc must appear m the many ; the spirit 
in forms ; the infinite in the finite ; the absolute 
in the conditional. He must show himself by acts, or 
signs, or words, each of which will represent much, but 
each of which will certainly misrepresent more. When He 
appears in creation, it is as power limited, 

Creation. ^^ ^ . ^ '. ^ ^ , ' 

goodness mixed, eternity evanescent and chang- 
ing ; when He employs human speech. He is constrained 
Human Ian- ^0 usc tcrms that are already devoted to visible 
guage. Qj, inferior things. Every such revelation is 

more or less imperfect and contradictory ; though there was 
once a being made in God's image, and who, as a creature 
adapted to the highest ends of intelligence and moral 
action, was a noble illustration of His wisdom and an evi- 
dence of His love ; yet that being is now de- 
formed. Sin, prejudice, passion, stains of 
every color so mar our race, that the glory of the Divine 
Creator is visible no longer ; and even if man had remained 
unfallen, he must have been at best a finite and imperfect 
type : truer and more complete because of his noble spi- 
ritual character, than anything inanimate ; but still involv- 
ing, as a revelation of God, many obvious contradictions. 
If, therefore, it be any objection to the doctrine of the 
Incarnation, that it involves the mystery of an embodiment 
of the infinite in the finite, and that even with this revela- 
tion God is not so efficiently revealed as to be cleared of 
all incomprehensibleness ; the answer is at hand. Every 
revelation, which God has ever given, is liable to the same 
objection 5 nor to finite minds can any revelation be given 



§ 8. Christ's incarnate. 133 

that shall be free from it. Every disclosure of such a 
Being must be necessarily imperfect. Creation, which 
outwardly represents his character, does its office inade- 
quately. Words which utter human thought and feeling 
are equally inadequate ; and even divine insti- 

. . . Divine institu- 

tutions contain in their phraseology or mci- tions : aii un- 
dents something repugnant to the very idea of 
the God they represent. 

48. If it be true, moreover, that it is for Man this Divine 
revelation is intended, and that man was ori- cj^^ist incar- 
ginally adapted to express the character of complete "^evV 
God, it follows that the Incarnation may be- ^^^^^^ 
come the richest and most appropriate manifestation of all. 
As creation sets forth '' His eternal power and Godhead," 
so may the incarnation set forth with those attributes His 
moral perfections ; and the one will be found to contain no 
contradiction or mystery which is not already contained in 
the other. Both are miraculous. Both are in certain 
aspects incomprehensible to finite minds ; and the latter is 
on these accounts the more credible that the necessity for 
it was deeper, the circumstances of it are mightier, and 
the attributes it reveals livelier and holy. These attributes, 
moreover, are such as could be revealed only in human 
form ; the attributes of condescension, of patience, of for- 
giveness, in one word— of love. 

49. The necessity of such a revelation is fully attested 
by various heathen systems. The idea of an 

•^ '' , Necessity of 

embodiment of the divine in the human is com- s"ch a rereia- 

_ , . tion attested by 

mon to them all. Hmdooism has its uncreated heathen sys- 

T 1 T • • • • -i-k 1 terns. 

light, and its successive incarnations ; Brahm 
is now creator, and now preserver, and now destroyer; 
and in each relation he sustains a personal character. 
Buddhism, though professedly monotheistic and anti-mate- 
rial, believes in many incarnations ; and regards every ex- 
hibition of intellect and power as a portion of the God- 

12 



134 CHAPTER III. 

head. It protested against the Brahminical doctrine that 
God had become man ; and ended in maintaining the 
Buddhistic one that man was God. Mahomedanism, indeed, 
may be deemed an exception ; and yet the God of the false 
prophet is entirely a personal agent, with only human feel- 
ings and schemes. He is always set forth in the person of 
the successors of Mahomet as he was pre-eminently in Ma- 
And by the homet himself. To decide the question, it may 
Jewish. j^g added that the ancient Jewish economy, 

which was certainly monotheistic, abounds with represen- 
tations which are unmeaning, unless on the supposition that 
God himself appeared in the likeness of man ; guiding, in- 
structing, and helping his people — representations that 
have all the effect of independent testimony ; for though 
the Jews believed that those representations pointed to a 
Divine Messiah, the books that contain them were written 
before Christ appeared, and under circumstances that make 
collusion between their wTiters and our Lord absolutely 
incredible. An incarnate God, therefore, is the doctrine of 
all systems ; and the peculiarity of Scripture is, that only 
there He is worthily and truly revealed.* 

50. Nor is it only that the doctrine of the incarnation 
of Christ has its representative in other sys- 

The purposes '^ 

of such incar- tcms. lu ouc systcm or another the very pur- 
nation recog- /. TT* • • 

ni zed in one or poscs of His iucamation, and the necessity for 

other of the . . tit 

heathen ays- it lu Order to accomplish them, are more or less 
distinctly recognised. The northern Odin, 
who answers to the Roman Mercury, was the messenger of 
the gods. The chief object of worship among the ancient 
Germans was one who connected heaven with earth, and 
both with the shades below. Sometimes he is man only, 
and has his personal history ; sometimes he is God : but, 

* This was a frequent argument of the early apologists ; and Cicero 
has not overlooked the fact, ^' Totum propo Coelum nonne humano gcnore 
completum est." Tusc. qnes. i. 13. 



§ 8. CHRIST INCARNATE. 135 

in either capacity, it is his character of restorer of the hroJcen 
relations between the invisible world and ourselves that 
attracted the reverence of those ancient tribes.* Plato 
deemed the visit of such a being essential for the discovery 
of true wisdom, and the solution of the innumerable pro- 
blems which human inquiry had started but could not 
solve. The sacrificial institutes of all nations pointed with 
more or less clearness to man's need of a propitiation ; and 
for propitiation must not the victim be as to his flesh 
mortal, yet so gifted as to become an immaculate and effi- 
cacions offering. Others again, like the Mohammedans, 
worshipped energy, and regarded the Deity as the king of 
men. They sought, therefore, in their idea of religion for 
a Ruler and Head. 

51. All these wants, it will be observed, are met in 
Christ. He came as the very image of the Father's person 
and the brightness of His glory, to teach by 

example and by precept : as man, to die ; as ^^X the^prt 
God-man, to unite heaven and earth, and to j^j'^^^and^ the 
rule in God's stead over man. Thus did He theGentnrs!^^ 
take up at his coming the unfulfilled promises 
of every system, and accomplish them. He was not the 
prophet, priest, and king of the covenant only, but the 
Desire of all nations concentering in himself the longings 
of all. ^^ In Him did all fullness dwell." On His head are 
many crowns ; and concerning his teaching it may be 
affirmed, that not Israel only, but the isles (the regions of 
the Gentiles) waited for His law. (Is. xlii. 4.) 

52. Viewed therefore only as a medium of revelation, 
the incarnation of Christ seems natural ; view- 

Incarnation : 

ing Him still further, as our example. His in- natural as a 

revelation of 

carnation seems absolutely necessary. In the God; necessary 

^ as an example 

nrst character He comes to announce the of perfect vir- 
Divine will, and manifests, as far as our capa- 

* Tacitus, Grermania. 



136 CHAPTER III. 

cities will allow, the attributes of the invisible God ; thus 
bringing God to man. In the second character He comes 
to aid and exalt our piety ; to engage our affections ; to 
give us a perfect type of holiness ; in one word, to bring 
man to God ; and for this purpose His incarnation seems 
not only appropriate but essential. 

Man is naturally imitative. Example sways him more 
than precept. All human models of excellence 

Man imitative. . n , > • xi, • 'ui 

are imperfect ; m copying them we insensibly 
A perfect ex- blcud their virtues with their faults, and too 

ample adapted -pi. 

to influence oftcu admire both. At once to satisfy this 

human feel- n t -t i • 

ing neces- tendency of human nature, and to guard against 
the evils connected with it, the ancient Stoics 
formed their model man ; seeking by this creation to avoid 
on the one hand the dullness of abstract description, and 
on the other the imperfections incident to all visible excel- 
lence. Copying a perfect example as the surest way of 
attaining a perfection became, in their teaching, a settled 
law. 

To this scheme (which, however, was perhaps the best 
that was practicable in their position) there lay the fatal 
objection that the whole character was ideal ; defective of 
course in its virtue, and above all in its influence. It in- 
spired no interest ; it awakened no sympathy. The whole 
plan was but one short remove from an abstract morality ; 
it was free no doubt from many of the imperfections of 
living models, but eliciting none of the affectionate reve- 
rence which is excited by a real existing object, and ex- 
erting therefore no personal practical power. 

This double want, first of a perfect character, and se- 
condly of a perfect character vested with all that can in- 
Both found in tcrcst humau feeling, the Incarnation supplies. 
Christ. j^ exhibits spotless, living virtue ; corrects in 

actual practice the errors of human nature ; and realizes a 
nobler picture of excellence than the conceptions of ancient 



§ 8. CHRIST INCARNATE. 13T 

pliilosophj ever formed ; the more touching and impressive 
from the humble station which Christ filled, and the solemn 
duties he came to discharge. His was virtue struggling 
that it might be triumphant ; the very form which it must 
ever assume in the history of our race. 

53. The best exposition of these remarks is found in the 
way in which the apostles speak of holiness. 
To begin the Divine life we are ^'quickened These views 

confirmed by 

with Christ." In our baptism we are '^ buried apostolic teach- 

ing 

with Christ;" ^^we rise with Christ;" we re- 
member Him who before many witnesses wit- ch^s^^^^^^"^ 
nessed a good confession, and so we are *'to 
put on Christ." (Eph. ii. 5 ; Rom. vi. 4 ; 1 Tim. vi. 13; 
Rom. xiii. 14.) In persecution we are told of Him who 
''endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself ; 
and who for the joy that was set before Him endured the 
cross, despising the shame." Beneficence is enforced by 
app.eals to the example of Him, who ^' though He was 
rich, yet for our sakes became poor." We are to love one 
another as ''Christ loved us." Even relative duties are 
enjoined in the same form ; and husbands are to " love 
their wives as Christ loved the church." All excellence is 
summed up in the comprehensive precept that we are to do 
what is pleasing to the Lord, and to purify ourselves even 
as He is pure ; " looking unto Him the author and finisher 
of our faith." (Heb. xii. 3.) 

And as all virtue is thus represented, not in the abstract, 
but in the person of Christ, so all happiness is 

Happiness, 

dependent on our union with Him. " If a man union with 
love me he will keep my words ; and my Father 
will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our 
abode with him." To die, is, in apostolic language, "to 
depart and be with Christ." The sum of all blessedness 
is "to be forever with the Lord." " Having suffered with 
Him, we shall also be glorified together." This is the sum 

12* 



138 CHAPTER III. 

of all blessedness ; for another apostle is contented to re- 
main in comparative ignorance of a future life, under the 
conviction that it involves conformity to the pattern of the 
Great Master, and admission to His presence. '^ Beloved, 
now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear 
what we shall be ; but we know that when he shall appear 
we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as .He is.'' 
(1 John iii. 2.) To be like Him is complete holiness, and to 
• be with Him is eternal unspeakable joy ; terms that clearly 
imply a personal Christ ; the incarnation at once of virtue 
and love. 

54. It is in fact through His incarnation that the church 
Consequent ^^ identified with her Lord. She reads in His 
Christ^ and ffis history her own; she follows His steps, she 
church. becomes the image and reflection of His life. 
He came at first in lowliness, and in lowliness His church 
began ; He was visited with the Holy Ghost at the Jordan, 
and she at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost ; He labored 
in weariness and watchings, and she is still a pilgrim and 
a stranger upon the earth ; He was made perfect through 
suffering, and ascended from the cross to His crown, and 
here, too, she is the heir of His destiny. In this respect He 
has left her an example ; and to ''follow the Lamb wither- 
soever He goeth," is a description of both her noblest 
office and her richest reward. 

Sect. 9. — Christ incarnate a Saviour through Suf- 
fering. 

55. In the person of our Lord, then, we have God re- 
vealed and the law set forth. He is at once the express 
image of the Father, and the living model of holiness. In 

Him we see what God is, and what man ought 

tion in relation to bc. The conncctiou betwccn His incarna- 

su erm«. ^.^^ ^^^ ^^.^ Sufferings is yet to be considered. 

He became man that He might suffer and die. He was 



§ 9. CHRIST INCARNATE. 130 

'^ made of a woman . . . under the law that He might re- 
deem us from its curse, and that we might receive the 
adoption of sons.'^ (Gal. iii. 13; iv. 4.) ''Forasmuch as 
the children were partakers of flesh and blood, He also 
Himself likewise took part of the same, that through death 
He might destroy him that hath the power of death, that 
is, the devil ; and deliver them who through fear of death 
were all their lifetime subject to bondage." ''Wherefore 
in all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His 
brethren.'^ "And in that he himself hath suffered, being 
tempted. He is able to succor them that are tempted." 
(Heb. ii. 14, 15, 18.) 

Let us mark what these expressions entail. 

66. He came in our nature. He was made of a woman. 
The Creator appeared as a creature ; the ever 

11 T "T^ -I rrn A 1 n TO Christ man c 

blessed Xiod, a mourner. The Author oi life, what this in. 
light, and happiness, has Himself wept tears. 
One who is infinitely holy, and the Giver of all law, has 
become obedient to law, and has been seen in strange 
contact with sin : these are facts whose amazing signifi- 
cance can be forgotten only through familiarity, and they 
are of the deepest interest to our race. 

Sin and misery, holiness and happiness, form the oppo- 
site sides of the universe. The whole of the contact with 
mystery connected with them none can unravel. ^^^* 
We know little more than that they are irreconcileable 
antagonists, and that by a gracious arrangement the dark 
elements of evil will be in the end subservient to the prin- 
ciple of good. To the side of holiness Christ belonged. 
Sin, which is opposed to it, he abhorred with an intensity 
which no fallen creature can conceive ; and yet, by sin and 
its shadow — misery — He was for years surrounded. They 
touched him in every nerve. Heaven and its purity were 
exchanged for earth and its corruptions. Here he lived, 
and here at length He died in such suffering as can be ex- 



140 CHAPTER III. 



I 



plained only on the supposition that He had been charged 
with the sins of the world, and was bearing the penalty 
due to them all. 

What such a life involved it is not easy to say ; but it 
might be imagined, if one eminently holy were called, by 
some mysterious arrangement, to spend part of his eternity 
in hell. In the case of such a sufferer, however, the shock 
which his moral nature would undergo in listening to the 
blasphemy and in witnessing the wretchedness of the lost, : 
would be less painful than was endured on earth by our 
Lord. Heaven and earth must have presented contrasts 
more striking to Him than would be presented by earth 
and hell to the holiest of mankind. Amidst the sadness 
and temptations to which this hourly contact with evil ex- 
posed Him, our Lord entered upon His work and fulfilled 
the duties of His ministry. 

51. Nor was it only that Christ appeared as man. 
Christ under He was made under the law ; placed therefore 
^^^' in the same position in relation to it as were 

those whom he came to redeem. His mental and moral 
constitution was essentially the same as ours. He had 
an intellect like our own, adapted for the investigation of 
truth. He had a conscience, too, to perceive the relation 
in which He stood to other beings, and to recognize the 
duties which those relations implied. He had a will to 
decide His choice, and affections to impel him to action. 
In all points (sin only excepted) He was one of ourselves. 
He was under the law, and therefore subject to all its 
requirements. He was bound to obey what it 

Subject to it. . . , . t , . t -, ^ 

enjoined ; to avoid what it condemned. Cre- 
ated under it, he was also to be judged by it ; and, though 
this subjection was founded on His own act, yet still it 
was as complete as if He had been descended immediately 
and directly from the first transgressors. 



I 



I 



§ 9. CHRIST INr.NPvyATE. 141 

In this condition He was of course liable personally to 
all the consequences of His acts. To Him the Answerable for 
command came, as to ourselves, with both i^^^^cts. 
promise and threatening: ^'Indignation, wrath, tribula- 
tion, and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil ;" 
*' glory, honor, and peace to every man that worketh good.'' 
(Rom. ii. 8-10.) With this announcement before Him, 
He became, by fulfilling the law, entitled in His human 
nature to its rewards, as by disobedience He would have 
become in His human nature, and on His own account 
subject to its penalty and curse. 

In this condition, moreover, He was entitled to the 
results of His obedience for all whom he repre- Entitled for 
sented. It is clearly a principle of God's consequenc^s^^ 
present government that we suffer through one <^^*^^^ 
another. The state and interests of each generation 
depend largely on the character and doings of preceding 
generations, as all have suffered in consequence of the 
acts of our first parents. How this connection is main- 
tained, we need not enquire. Still less need we enquire 
whether the constitution of the world might not have been 
so arranged as to make all men independent of one another 
for good and for evil. The fact is, that Christ came into 
a world where this close connection had been already 
established, and himself subject to it. By one man's 
offence many were made sinners; by one man's obedience 
(if he be obedient) many shall be made righteous. (Rom. 
V. 19.) 

Under this law, then, and subject to its conditions, 
Christ appeared. He came to obey ; He exposed himself 
to all the consequences of failure ; and, in the event of 
His success, he became entitled, as Mediator, to all the 
honors of obedience. If He keep the law without blemish, 
lie is himself accepted, and for us there is hope. If, on 
the other hand, He fail ; if, through his own weakness or 



142 CHAPTER III. 

by the subtility of the devil, He shall be seduced in thought 
or word from the narrow line of perfect holiness, our ruin 
is irremediable and complete. Paradise lost is lost for ever. 
Christ must bear the common curse : the Divine plan of 
recovery, which embodies the maturest fruits of infinite 
wisdom, proves abortive ; and the blessed God himself is 
left to deplore the ruin, which His own frustrated benefi- 
cence makes only the more touching and profound. 

58. With these facts in view, we may appreciate in 
some measure the fearful responsibility and consequent suf- 
fering which the life of Christ involved. 

In common life the happiness and destiny of men some- 
times depend upon the acts of an hour or a day. When 
the importance of such seasons is seen, men 
voived in this cutcr upou them with the keenest anxiety ; 
arra „ m . ^^^^ .^ ^^^^ auxicty coutiuues, it becomes 

intolerable. Protracted doubt tinder such circumstances 
is what few can bear. 

Sometimes, again, in the history of our race, not only 
men's own destiny is dependent upon their decisions, but 
the destiny of others ; and then the anxiety is, to benevolent 
minds, yet more oppressive. Happily there are few occa- 
sions on which men are called to act habitually under the 
weight of such responsibility; but, when the occasion 
occurs, it is generally found that, unless they be sustained 
by eminent virtue, either their hearts become callous, or 
their minds give way under the strain. History abounds 
with illustrations of both results. 

Now in the case of the Messiah,, the happiness, not of 
Man's happi- Himself alouc, but of millions, was suspended 
nr'snspe'nded ^po^ the rcsults of His obedieucc. If He fall, 
^" ^^' the world must fall, and fall for ever. For not 

only were the interests of time and of the body at stake, 
but the interests of eternity and of the soul. 'Nov these 
interests alone. He had undertaken to magnify the law; 



1 



1 



§ 9. CHRIST INCARNATE. 143 

to honor what man had treated with contempt ; and to give 
to the universe an example of perfect obedience. If He 
fall, the law and the government of God must fall ; and 
thenceforth the justice and the mercy of the Eternal are 
covered with confusion. Can any finite mind measure the 
weight of this responsibility ? 

What wonder that Christ Himself longed for the time 
when it should cease; ''I have a baptism to be baptized 
with, and how am I straitened till it be accomplished !" 
(Luke xii. 50.) And what wonder that angels ministered 
to Him; that Moses and Elias, the representatives of 
earlier dispensations, appeared and conversed with Him on 
His coming death ; (Matt, xvii ;) and that God Himself 
cheered and strengthened Him when he seemed sinking 
under His load I (John xii. 28.) 

59. Everything, moreover, was adapted to increase the 
burden. The responsibility rested on Him 

. Burden in- 

not for an hour or a day, but during every act, creased by dr, 
and thought, and motive of His whole life. 
Had He been influenced by one guilty, or even imperfect 
motive, had His love to God or man for one moment 
faltered. His probation must have ceased, and His con- 
templated sacrifice have been rendered of no avail for us, 
being required for Himself. . . . All around Him, too, was 
calculated to exhaust His love, and to tempt Him to diso- 
bedience. Everywhere was contamination, had He been 
disposed to yield to it. By all He was treated unjustly, 
and injustice might have exasperated Him. His country- 
men returned hatred for love, and His love might have 
failed. . . . Doubts were thrown upon His relation with the 
Father ; facts were appealed to in confirmation of them, 
and His filial confidence might have given place to dis- 
trust. . . . Men who are engaged in arduous enterprises 
unite with themselves others who comprehend their plans 
and sympathize with their purpose. Such association 



144 CHAPTER III. 

lightens anxiety, even when it does not bring complete 
relief. But Christ stood by Himself. His brethren did 
not believe in Him. (John vii. 5.) His most promising 
disciples misunderstood the very designs of His mission. 
(Luke xviii. 34 ; John xii. 26.) " He trod the wine-press 
alone, and of the people there was none with Him.". . . In 
this burdened and lonely state, He encountered sufferings 
such as no other being on earth ever endured. He came 
to redeem, and how was He welcomed ? Within a few 
months of His birth, Herod sought His life. He travels 
over Judea and Galilee ; and, wherever He goes, heals all 
manner of sickness and disease ; but He is without a home. 
'' The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests ; 
but the Son of man had not where to lay His head." If 
He work miracles, they are ascribed to the devil ; if He 
does not work them, the people deny His authority. (Matt, 
xii. 24-38.) He comes in humble form, and calls Him- 
self the Son of man. His hearers then take occasion to 
despise His poverty and birth. He claims to be the equal 
of the Father, and they accuse Him of blasphemy. (John 
vi., vii.) He speaks plainly, and they seek to put Him to 
death ; He speaks in proverbs, and they say He is mad, 
and hath a devil. (John x. 19, 20, 36-39.) In either case' 
He is regarded as an impostor of the vilest description, as 
smitten and blasted even of God. (Isa. liii. 4.) They that 
hated him without a cause, were more than the hairs of His 
head. (Ps. Ixix. 1-4.) . . . Nor was this all. The hosts of 
darkness seem to have had, in the days of our Lord, pecu- 
liar power over the human race, and that power was no 
doubt exerted to the utmost. Of all who ever appeared 
in human nature, Christ was most exposed to it. With the 
view of seducing Him into sin, the temptations of the 
wilderness were conducted by the Prince of darkness him- 
self; and from that history it may be concluded that every 
circumstance of the life of Christ was employed in succes- 



§ 9. CHRIST INCARNATE. 145 

sion with consummate skill to lead him astray. Those 
temptations occurred in the wilderness, and before the 
more severe of the trials of His ministry had begun. What 
must they have been among the multitude, when the malig- 
nity of His enemies and the falseness of His friends had so 
bitterly wounded Him, and the various incidents of His 
life afforded better hope that they might be tried with 
success 1 

60. Amid such trials, and under the burden of these 
responsibilities, Christ moved on to the closing Approach of 
scenes of His life. In prospect of these, He ^^^^ '*'"^s^^' 
prayed earnestly that the cup might pass from Him. So 
intense was the struggle, that blood was forced 
from every pore of His body ; the agony too ^ ^^^^" ^' 
great for endurance. For this hour, however. He had 
come. The cup was not removed, and He was now to 
drink it to its last dregs. His disciples leave Him ; the 
boldest and most zealous of their number denies with oaths 
that he even knew Him. He is charged with blasphemy ; 
a reproach that might well have broken His heart. The 
people whom He came to save have conspired to murder 
Him ; and they begin the accomplishment of their purpose 
with the cruelty of merciless ruffians. The night that 
introduced the day on which he suffered, had been spent in 
the agony of the garden — in visiting, at the command of 
his persecutors, all parts of the city, and in pleading before 
five successive tribunals. These exhausting struggles have 
passed, and now He is condemned. The spotless Son of God 
is to die the death of a felon and a slave. He is smitten 
with the fist, and tauntingly asked to tell who smote Him. 
He is spit upon and scourged, crowned with thorns and 
mocked, and then led away to be crucified. Compelled to 
carry His cross. He faints under it ; but at length He is 
nailed to it, to endure a painful and lingering death. Here, 
with an emaciated frame. His physical strength prostrated 

13 



146 CHAPTER III. 

by continued watching, His power of self-control, weakened 
by suffering and the approach of death, began a conflict 
severer than any He had yet known, and involving in its 
result the permanence of all his past achievements, and the 
destinies of the moral universe of God. 

''It was the hour and the power of darkness.'^ The 
That struggle Warfare was well nigh accomplished ; but one 
everyto"sibie^ final Struggle remained. Every human aid had 
disadvantage, f^j, gome time bccu withdrawn ; the moment of 
nature's utmost weakness was come ; and that moment was 
chosen by his foes for the crisis of our race. If now He 
can be tempted — if but one impatient desire or selfish 
thought can be excited within, there is hope that the plan 
of mercy may prove a failure, and the dominion of fallen 
spirits be restored. 

Nor only so. So far He had been sustained by commu- 
nion with His Father. Often had He retired from active 
labor, to seek solace in the consciousness of that presence 
and love. But all is now at an end. He has chosen His 
work : He is pleased to bear our sins, and He must abide 
by the consequences of His choice. Since that agony of 
the garden, another trial has been completed, and another 
sentence passed. In spirit, Christ has been arraigned at 
God's bar under the imputation of human guilt ; and now 
justice claims her own. Even with the representative of 
sinners, in that dread moment, God can hold no inter- 
course, nor can God give help. '' my God, I cry in the 
day time, but thou hearest not.'' '' Our fathers trusted in 
thee ; they trusted, and thou didst deliver them." '' But I 
am a worm, and no man ; a reproach of men, and despised 
of the people." '' My God, My God ! why hast thou for- 
saken me ?"* 

* Psalni xxii. 2, 4, 6, 1. 



§ 9. CHRIST INCARNATE. 14? 

61. ''The moments of agony roll slowly away — the 
power of hell has gained no advantage — the its successful 
Messiah, strong in His own unaided virtue, has '^^^®* 
baffled every attack of earth and hell, and shines glorious 
in untarnished holiness. His last moment has arrived. 
Doth He yet retain His integrity ? Doth He, amidst these 
unfathomable trials of His benevolence, still love His 
neighbor as Himself? Hearken to the prayer that quivers 
upon his parched and fevered lips : ' Father, forgive them ; 
for they know not what they do.' Although forsaken of 
His Father and His God, doth He yet trust in Him with 
filial confidence ? Hearken again : ' Father, into Thy 
hands I commit my spirit.^ "* The conflict is over; all is 
finished ; man is still the object of pity and love, and God 
of reverence and trust. 

The work of our salvation is now achieved. The apos- 
tate race of Adam is delivered from the curse ; the broken 
law is doubly vindicated — first, by the obedience of the 
Lawgiver, and then by His endurance of the penalty; and 
the whole has been efi*ected at a cost of suffering, and under 
a continued burden of responsibility, such as none on 
earth can conceive. Hence the dignity of the Conqueror. 
*' Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given 
Him a name above every name ; that at the name of Jesus 
every knee should bow, and every tongue confess." (Phil, 
ii. 9.) Hence also, as He ascended into heaven, a new 
song burst from the lips of the redeemed of every kindred 
and tongue ; '' saying with a loud voice, worthy is the Lamb 
that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, 
and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing." Hence 
the repetition of the strain: ''Blessing, and honor, and 
glory, and power be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, 
and unto the Lamb for ever and ever." 



* Dr. Wajland's Sormons. 

14 



148 CHAPTER III. 

Such were the sufferings of our Lord. How blessed the 
arrangement that laid help on one so mighty ! How un- 
speakable the love that was willing to endure such suffer- 
ing, and incur such risks for the sake of a race that had 
willfully broken a righteous and beneficent law ! 

G2. To complete the view of the sufferings of Christ, we 

must regard them from another point. As 
His sufferings man, He was rendered capable of suffering ; 
aivinity; the but it is as God that His sufferings have an in- 
them Hi"s man- finite valuc, and become more than equivalent 

to the penalty originally denounced against 
transgression. His human nature made suffering possible ; 
His Divine made it efficient ; and both illustrate the wis- 
dom and love which devised and executed the scheme. 
This point of view we shall occupy hereafter. The thing 
to be noticed now, is, that the very incarnation and obe- 
dience of our Lord involved sufferings and responsibility 
such as no finite mind had ever known or can now con- 
ceive ; and that under the continued burden of this respon- 
sibility He went forth teaching and preaching, exhibiting 
in Himself, in the meantime, the great truths of the king- 
dom of God. 

63. Combining the facts of this section with those of the 

preceding, we gain a new view of the sufferings 

A Saviour ^ . /. tt i t 

"under law," 01 our Lord. Evcu II Hc had not come to 

our example as , j. d • x j^ ^ ^ 

well as sacri- make atouemeut tor sm, an incarnate teacher, 
free from suffering, could never have been a 
perfect model of holiness. As our example, no less than 
as our sacrifice, He needed to be made under the law. 



\ 



CHAPTER IV. 



CHRIST THE TEACHER AND PROPHET: 
THE LAW : HIS OWN WORK : FAITH. 

§ 1. Lessons taught in the earlier miracles of our 
Lord. 

§ 2. The sermon on the mount. Christ the fulfill- 
ment OF THE LAW IN MORALITY AND DOCTRINE. 

§ 3. Christ's teaching in relation to His own work, 
and the necessity of faith in him. 

§ 4. Christ's further disclosures in Gahi.ee and Ju- 

D^A. 

§ 5. Teaching by parables. 



13* 



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CHAPTER IV. 



CHRIST A TEACHER AND PROPHET : SCENES AND LESSONS 
CONNECTED WITH OUR LORD'S PERSONAL MINISTRY. 



Sect. 1. — Lessons taught in the earlier miracles of our 

Lord. 

L And now the character of Christ as a teacher sent 
from God is fully announced : He has proved 
His mission ; He has been honored and re- Christ's jour- 
jected by His countrymen. On the banks of 
the Jordan, at Jerusalem, and throughout Samaria, He 
has proclaimed His message, though as yet without any 
extensive success. The next two years and a half of His 
life are devoted to the establishment of His prophetic 
teaching-office. Thrice in this time He makes the circuit 
of Galilee, preaching everywhere the Gospel of the king- 
dom ; once He visits Jerusalem (John v. 1-4^), once the 
coasts of Tyre and Sidon (Luke vii., viii.), and once the 
regions of Samaria. At the close of these labors, He 
goes up to Jerusalem, and thence to Peraea ; and after six 
months more of such itineracy, He goes once again to Je- 
rusalem immediately before He suffered. 

2. It is to His labors in Galilee, however, that our 
attention is first called. Here He wrought ^ ,, 

^ Galilee the 

most of His miracles; here He first revealed chief scene of 

. His teaching. 

the great moral truths contained m the sermon 

(153) 



154 CHAPTER IV. 

on the mount ; and here, moreover, He spoke some of His 
parables, though most of them were delivered towards the 
close of His career. At the commencement of His min- 
istry, His miracles and direct discourses were the chief 
means of His teaching. 

3. It is Matthew who notices the instructive fact, that 
as Christ was Himself despised by His countrymen, so He 
selected one of the most despised localities of Palestine as 
the scene of His labors ; and that this choice was in ful- 
fillment of an ancient prediction. (Matt. iv. 14, 16.) The 
natives of this region were lightly esteemed by their Jew- 
ish neighbors ; partly because of their distance from the 
temple, and partly also because of their frequent contact 

• with Pagans. Here as elsewhere, however, the 
very debasement of the people proved their 
need of redemption, and enhanced its value. Sinners are 
nearer to the kingdom of God than the self-righteous ; and 
so the poor Gallilean was nearer than the proud Pharisee. 
(Matt. ix. 13.) The theme of Christ's teaching was ever 
repentance and faith (Mark i. 14, 15) ; expressions that 
implied at first little more than a sense of need and guilt, 
together with a spirit of dependence upon the power and 
grace of the Messiah. For the conscious sinner, this mes- 
sage was of all others the most welcome. 

4. In entering upon His work as teacher. He deemed it 
Selects His dis- iHiportaut to sclcct His compauious, in order 
cipies. ^-^^^ ^YiQj might be eye-witnesses of His mira- 
cles, and of His resurrection, and be enabled to record 
what they had themselves seen and heard. Four of the eight 
writers of the New Testament were therefore chosen at 
the commencement of His ministry, and all remained with 
Him to its close. Simon Peter, James, John, and after- 
wards Matthew, were all formally invited to become His 
followers. 



§ 1. LESSONS TAUGHT IN THE EARLIER MIRACLES. 155 

5. This invitation was preceded by a remarkable miracle. 
The first three of the disciples iust named were 

^ "^ The first mira- 

fishermen, and had been following their craft cuious draiight 

^ of fishes. 

on the Lake of Tiberias — they were busy wash- 
ing their nets on the shore of the lake. Through Peter's 
ready compliance with the request of our Lord, He had 
been enabled to teach the people uninterrupted by the 
pressure of the crowd who attended to hear Him. In re- 
turn, perhaps, for this civility, our Lord bade Peter to 
push out into deep water, and to let down his nets for a 
draught ; designing, as has been said, to take the fisher- 
men in His net. To this suggestion Peter replied, that 
they had been all night laboring without success ; but, 
added he, with the beginnings of no feeble faith working in 
him, '^ Nevertheless at Thy word I will let down the net." 
This act of faith was immediately rewarded; for ^'they 
inclosed a multitude of fishes, so that the net began to 
break," and the boatmen were obliged to beckon to their 
partners to come to their help. This miraculous act (mira- 
culous in its knowledge) became to the fishermen the sign 
of a higher presence than they had yet recognized, filling 
them with astonishment and fear. And with QYirist rever- 
other feelings, too — Peter yields freely to the ^^^^^• 
impulse of the moment, and as he first saw the highest 
glory of his Saviour, so now he is the first to confess his 
own sinfulness : '' Depart from me, for I am a peter's confes- 
sinful man, Lord." «^^^' 

6. Thus it has ever been. The discovery of a Divine 
presence leads to conviction, and conviction The Divine pre- 
to a dread of deserved wrath. In old times it p^roduc^ed^ con- 
was the common judgment, that none could miction of sin. 
see God and live. That feeling had existed ever since 
Adam had retreated from the presence of his Creator, and 
Had hidden himself among the trees of the garden. Manoah 
judged that he must die, because he had seen God. Isaiah 



156 CHAPTER lY. 

learnt and confessed the uncleanness of his lips, when he 
saw " the King, the Lord of Hosts." Ezekiel fell upon 
his face — and DaniePs beauty was changed, when he 
came in contact with the Divine glory. So long as men 
but hear of God, they deem themselves safe ; but when 
once their eye sees Him, they either abhor themselves and 
repent as in dust and ashes, or in despair they cry to the 
rocks to cover them. It is in God's light that men see 
themselves and feel their guilt. 

7. Christ admits his confession, but bids him to lay 
Christ receives ^sidc liis fcar ; intimating, that in the living 
rionf^chc^"^^" manifestation of God in Christ, the near ap- 
and cans him. pi«oach of the Holy One is not only support- 
able, but ever refreshing. *^ Fear not," says He, ^'for 
henceforth thou shalt catch men" — clothing his promise in 
the language of the craft with which Peter was familiar — 
and when they had brought the ships to land, ^'they for- 
sook all and followed Him." 

Everything is here significant ; not the words only, but 
the acts. Christ had said nothing of His kingdom, and 
nothing of His requirements ; and yet discipleship evi- 
dently involved repentance, and the abandonment both of 
earthly possessions and of earthly love. From the first the 
disciples gave up the world, and that to them perhaps was 
not much. They gave up worldly affections too, and that 
was as much to them as to ourselves. 

8. Not unlike this early miracle was the last that Christ 
Christ's last performed (John xxi. 1-23). Then, again. He 
dl-anght of *^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^^ YiSLYQ showu himself to his disciples ; 
fishes. alluding probably to His first manifestation at 
Cana,* and perhaps also to the invisibility of His spiritual 
nature ; for that nature (whether as belonging to Christ or 
to angels) is ever said in Scripture to appear to man, and 

^' John ii. 11. l.jyai'spMjs, 



§ 1. LESSONS TAUGHT IN THE EARLIER MIRACLES. 15t 

often to be withdrawn. At this last manifes- ^J^^e resem- 
blance be' 

tation, three at least of the same apostles were ^w^<^^ ^^^ t^o 
present, and probably the whole. Here also there had 
been a night of fruitless toil, and already perhaps the dim 
feeling had arisen in their minds, that this second night 
was a spiritual counterpart of the first ; but the feeling 
must have been dim, or they would earlier have recog- 
nized the voice and the looks of their Friend. At early 
dawn He stood by the shore, and with friendly interest in 
the result of their labors, asked after their success. They 
answer, they have taken nothing — Christ^s power requiring, 
even in natural things, that a confession of poverty precede 
the bestowment of His gifts. ^' Cast the net," said He, 
^' on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They 
cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for 
the multitude of fishes." 

And this was enough. One disciple, at least, has dis- 
covered his Lord ; and Peter, to whom John communicated 
his discovery, unable to wait until the ship reached the land, 
throws himself into the sea that he may find himself the 
sooner at his Master's feet. 

How beautiful do both apostles come out here in their 
proper characters. It was love in the person of John that 
first detected the presence of Christ, and it was courage 
and energy in Peter that first reached him. When the 
disciples gained the shore, they found a fire kindled, with 
fish laid upon it (whether by earthly or by miraculous mi- 
nistration we are not told), and they were bidden by our 
Lord to bring the fish they had taken (an hundred and 
fifty and three), and to unite in a common meal. Numer- 
ous as the fish were, and all of them large, yet, it is added, 
was not the net broken. 

9. If the first miraculous draught of fishes suggested to 
the apostles of our Lord their appropriate significance of 
ofiice, audits earthly results, this last miracle these miracles. 

14 



158 CHAPTER IV. 

suggests no less strongly the glorious ingatbering of 
the nations into the kingdom of the Father. There 
some of the fish were lost ; here all are secured. There 
the number is not told us, and those that were taken were 
both good and bad ; here everything is fixed, and the fish 
that were taken were all preserved. Here, moreover, the 
toil ends in a meal of the Lord's preparing, and symbolical 
perhaps of the great festival in heaven with which he will 
refresh his servants, when they sit down with Abraham, and 
Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of God. 

Again, awe and fear are shed upon the hearts of the 
disciples by His presence, for their love is yet imperfect, and 
none of them durst give utterance to any feeling of doubt, 
or ask for further manifestations of grace, '^for they knew 
that it was the Lord." 

19. The scene is again changed, and we enter the syna- 
gogue of the town of Capernaum. Christ is 
demoniac in hcrc bcforc US, and it is the Sabbath. As was 
His custom. He had come up to worship, and 
was engaged in teaching the people. They are astonished 
at the authority with which He speaks, and He is about to 
show Himself mighty not in words only, but in deeds. An 
opportunity is here to be offered of making yet deeper im- 
pressions of His power, and of showing His authority 
over a domain which no human arm had yet entered. There 
was In the synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. Hith- 
erto Christ had ruled in nature — changing the water and 
healing disease ; now He is to prove that even the spirits 
obey Him. 

The demon who occupied the person of this poor man, 
felt, as soon as Christ entered the place, that now he was 
near one who was stronger than all ; and hoping to avoid 
an attack by a hasty expression of inferiority, he cried out : 
^^ Let us alone, what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus 
of Nazareth ? Art thou come to destroy us ? I know who 



§ 1. LESSONS TAUGHT IN THE EARLIER MIRACLES. 159 

thou art, the Holy One of God." The earth had not yet 
received her King, but heaven and hell had both borne 
witness to him. *' The devils believe and tremble.'' 

Such testimony, however, was likely to bring truth itself 
into suspicion, and Christ therefore rebuked him, saying : 
*^ Hold thy peace and come out of him ;" addressing the 
unclean spirit on His own authority and in His own name. 
The spirit at once obeyed the call, and having torn the 
man, though without doing him permanent mischief, he came 
out ; teaching us here, as we are taught elsewhere (Mark 
ix. 26), that Satan torments most those whom he is com- 
pelled to resign. 

11. The precise nature of the fearful affliction which was 
here relieved, will be noticed hereafter. It is 

Result on the 

enough now to remark that the result of this minds of the 
miracle was unmixed astonishment: '^What 
word," said they, ''is this; for with authority and power 
He commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out." 

12. On the same day our Lord healed the mother of 
Peter's wife, and in the evening crowds of sick ^ . , 

" Connection be- 

people visited or were brought to Him, and tween these 

cures and the 

He healed them all. ''The devils also came sufferings of 

our Lord. 

out of many, crying out and saying. Thou art 
the Christ;" to which record Matthew adds the remark 
that these miracles were all in fulfillment of the ancient 
prophecies: "Himself took our infirmities, and bare our 
sicknesses ;" intimating (as St. Peter explains) not so 
much that he relieved them, nor merely that in relieving 
them He exhausted His own nature ; but also that He 
stooped and came under the conditions of which those out- 
ward sicknesses were but the external sign. The sins they 
represented were laid upon Him ; and in bearing the mortal 
life which included them, and the guilt which caused them, 
He bore them in their curse and significancy for ever 
away. 



IGO CHAPTER IV. 

13. The next two miracle's of our Lo^d add yet more to 
Healing of the ^^^ knowledge of His power and mission. 
leper. Whether they really occupied the place in His 

ministry which we assign them, is somewhat uncertain ; but 
they were clearly at the commencement of it, and are both 
highly instructive. The first was the cure of the leper, and 
the second of the paralytic. The disease of the first suf- 
ferer had spread over his whole body, and he was leprous 
from head to foot. This leprosy was undoubtedly the 
most fearful disease known in the East, and was doubly 
fearful under the Jewish law. It was the type of moral 
pollution. All sickness, indeed, was more or less indi- 
cative of a tainted nature ; but this was the chosen symbol 
of it. It was in itself a living death ; a dissolution by 
degrees, limb after limb, of the whole frame. It was, 
moreover, incurable by human art, and was regarded as a 
direct infliction from God, by whose power alone it could 
be healed. (2 Kings v. t.) Hence it was that the leper 
bearing about, as he did, the visible token of sin in his 
soul, was treated everywhere as a great sinner — as one in 
whom sin had reached its highest manifestation, himself 
polluted, and polluting all he touched. He went covered in 
garments of mourning, as if lamenting his own decease ; his 
clothes rent, his head bare, his lip unshaven, himself and all 
that pertained to him unclean. The disease itself the Jews 
called ''the finger of God.,^' and emphatically, ''the stroke." 
To heal it was one of the most decisive evidences of Mes- 
siahship. "The lepers," said our Lord, "are cleansed," 
and on such maladies he delighted to exercise His power 
and love. 

In this case the leper comes manifesting his faith, bow- 
ing and worshiping (though the terms of themselves do not 
imply a recognition of any thing specially divine). He 
asks healing. He acknowledges Christ's power, and leaves 
the result to His pity and wisdom. "If Thou wilt," says 



§ 1. LESSONS TAUGHT IN THE EARLIER MIRACLES. 161 

he, " Thou canst make me clean." An appeal which showed 
a heart open to Divine influence, and readily receptive of 
it. Thereupon Christ ^'put forth His hand and said, I 
will; be thou clean, and immediately his leprosy was 
cleansed." 

14. A double injunction followed this cure. He first 
commanded to tell no man ; and then bade him 

Christ's iiijutio- 

q:o and show himself to the priests, and offer tions on the 

occasion. 

the gifts appointed by the law. (Lev. xiv. 2.) 
The first command has several parallels in the 

^ ,, ^ Their meaning. 

Gospels; (Matt. ix. 30; xii. 16; xvi. 20; 
xvii. 9 ; Mark iii, 12 ; v. 43 ; vii. 36 ; viii. 13, 26 ; ix. 9 ; 
Luke viii. 56 ; ix. 21 ;)" and it is probable that it was 
prompted by different reasons on different occasions. Some- 
times it was intended to prevent popular tumult, and a 
public effort of the people to take and make Him a king ; 
a result that would have frustrated the great end of His 
life. Sometimes, as Luther suggests, it was meant to set 
an example of humility ; and often, perhaps, (for the com- 
mand is given to the man healed, and not to the multitudes 
who witness the miracles,) to secure the spiritual profit of 
the sufferer. Very occasionally, our Lord ordered the 
person healed to a sphere of external activity ; (Mark v. 
19 ;) but generally He enforced quietness and retirement, 
seeking, doubtless, in each case, the prosperity of the 
inward life. In this particular instance the precept was 
neglected, (without sin, perhaps, for Christ might mean 
that he was first of all to tell the priests, and then that he 
should be free to tell it to others too,) and, in consequence, 
Christ was unable to enter into the city openly, (Mark i. 
45,) that is, without offering some gratification to the 
earthly and selfish hopes of the people. There is clearly a 
kind of popularity, quite as unfavorable to the diffusion of 
truth, as concealment itself. The second precept is also 
instructive. He implied by it, that the institutions of the 

14* 



162 CHAPTER IV. 

law were to be observed, and that not even the shadow 
was to be removed, till He had established the substance 
in its room. ^' Go show thyself for a testimony unto them, 
a proof that thou art healed, that thou mayest be admitted 
again into the congregation of Israel, and that the priests 
themselves may have an evidence of my power, and the 
unreasonableness of their unbelief.'' 

14. The scene again changes. Christ has entered the 
Healing of the court of somc friendly dwelling, and multitudes 
afr'isf avowed- crowdcd arouud to hear Him. Pharisees and 
ly forgives sin. (^Q^^jQ^g of the law are present from the distant 
parts of Galilee, and from Jerusalem itself; nor is there 
room to receive them — ^'no not so much as about the 
door. The occasion was evidently important, and the 
truth which Christ had taught in His previous miracle by 
implication, He resolves to teach plainly in this. A poor 
paralytic, whose friends could not come near for the press, 
is carried by them to the roof of the house, (by the steps 
against the outside wall of the building,) and is let down 
before the Lord. This manifestation of faith was novel, 
and it was inconvenient, for Christ was teaching at the 
time ; but He condescends to our need, and ever welcomes 
our faith. Seeing their faith, therefore — at once theirs and 
the poor man's — He addressed him, '' Son, be of good 
cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee." No word had been 
spoken, no petition presented ; but Christ loves to do 
above what we ask. He saw, no doubt, the man's heart, 
and the deep s.ense of sinfulness that was excited there ; 
and, adapting His message to his case, gave him the assu- 
rance, not of healing, but of pardon. 

Here is a new claim. " This man," said the Pharisees 
The thoughts ^^ their thoughts, ^^ blasphemeth ; pretending 
see'iJ^andou'r ^^ cxcrcise a power which belongs only to 
Lord's reply. (Jod." And hcrc again is a new miracle. 
Perceiving in His spirit what thoughts were stirring in 



§ 1. LESSONS TAUGHT IN THE EARLIER MIRACLES. 1G3 

their breasts, Christ at once repels them ; giving, in the 
vindication of His language, an evidence of His divinity, 
^'for the thoughts of the hearts of men are open only to 
God. (1 Sam. xvi. 1 ; 1 Chron. xxviii. 9 ; Jer. xvii. 
10.) He even indicates the line of argument which, in 
their thoughts, they had taken. ''You suppose," His 
answer implies, ''that my command is powerless — a blas- 
phemous intention, but without result ; its issues are in a 
world concealed from your view. It is easy to say, ' thy 
sins be forgiven thee,' but to say 'be healed,' would be a 
surer test of the divinity of my mission. I will fulfill your 
implied demand. You ask an outward sign of the commu- 
nication of inward grace — a proof within the cognizance of 
your senses of miraculous power ; and that proof I will 
supply. That ye may know that the Son of Man hath 
power to forgive sins, I will now utter the harder saying, 
'Arise, take up thy bed, and walk.' And immediately he 
arose, took up his bed, and went forth before them all." 

How the Pharisees felt or thought on witnessing this 
miracle, we are not told ; but the people, far less hardened 
against the truth, were all amazed, and glorified God. 

16. Ordinarily the miracles of Christ were miracles 
rather of healing, than of forgiveness. There 
are some other instances, however, in addition timer?o^™tt- 
to the one now under consideration ; and in gf^rntssfTome- 
these, as well as by other passages of Scripture, toTy to^It^^^^" 
this power of Christ is confirmed (Luke xvii. 
19 ; John v. 14). It is probable that in many instances 
bodily healing prepared men to receive these better bless- 
ings of which it was the appropriate sign. Here, at least, 
it is clearly shown that Christ had the power to bestow the 
greater gift, and that the straitening was not in Him, but 
in the narrow contracted views of those who applied for 
healing. The greater faith of this applicant, though itself 
a gift, was counted wortliy of the richer reward. 



164 CHAPTER IV. 

It. This act of forgiveness prepares the way for even a 
more remarkable development of the true cha- 
infirm man at racter of our Lord. The Pharisees whom he 
had met at Capernaum had returned to Jeru- 
salem, and Christ himself has gone up to the feast. (John 
V. 1-4.) In the neighborhood of the pool of Bethesda 
(the upper fountain probably of the pool of Siloam) a 
great multitude of impotent folk lay. One of these poor 
sufferers, who had been thirty and eight years ''in that 
case," Christ addressed ; seeking first to excite hope in 
the breast that must by this time have often yielded to de- 
sponding feeling. ''Wilt thou," said He, "be made 
whole ?" The man was thus led to trust the love of the 
questioner in order that he might ultimately trust His 
power ; and Christ is thus seen awakening the faith which 
in a few moments He will demand. " Most gladly," is the 
spirit of the reply; "my infirmity is no consequence of 
unwillingness, only when the water has its healing power 
I have no man to put me into the pool, and while I am 
entering another steppeth down before me." But now the 
long years of disappointed expectation are at an end. 
Jesus saith unto him : " Rise, and take up thy bed and 
walk ;" and the man, believing that power went forth with 
the word, was immediately made whole, and took up his 
bed and walked. 

18. The same day, however, was the Sabbath — the day 
Christ claims sacrcd to worsMp and rest. The Jews there- 
L'g^^ worlt f^^^^ t^^^ IS, the spiritual heads of the nation,* 
continually. found fault with the man for carrying his bed 
on that day. Doubtless the act might seem to be forbid- 
den by the letter of the ancient law ; but really it was part 

* So John generaHy employs this phrase. John i. 19 ; vii. 1 ; xviii. 
12, 14. 



§ 1. LESSONS TAUGHT IN THE EARLIER MIRACLES. 1G5 

of the healing, and was included therefore among those 
acts which (as Christ tells us elsewhere) it may be sinful 
to leave undone. (Luke vi. 9.) In His next miracle in- 
deed our Lord took this ground, and showed that forms 
must ever yield to the life ; and that as ^Hhe Sabbath was 
made for man, and not man for the Sabbath" — He Himself 
as Lord of man, and still more therefore of the Sabbath 
too, has power to alter its requirements as He will. Here, 
however. He takes even higher ground, affirming that in 
this act He kept the Sabbath — kept it, that is, 

.. ,.,. His beneficent 

With the highest benencent activity, which m activity is tho 
His case, as in His Father's, was identical 
with the holiest rest. The quietism of the Sabbath is con- 
fined, He implies, to beings framed like you, ever in danger 
of losing the full repose of your nature amid the multitude 
of earthly toils ; but with Me and My Father rest and 
activity are one. 

19. This defence exasperates His adversaries the more. 
He is now in their esteem not only a Sabbath- 

Agcpp'fo I'll a 

breaker, but a blasphemer, for He makes Him- identity with 
self equal with God. So far from denying this claims equal 
charge, Christ confirms it with the most em- 
phatic protestation. ''Verily, verily, I say unto thee." 
(ver. 19.) He asserts the complete unity of operation be- 
tween the Father and Himself ; first denying all action of 
His own independently of God, and then affirming posi- 
tively that his acts are also the acts of God. As an evi- 
dence of this oneness. He appeals to His quickening power, 
for He giveth life in all senses (see chap. i. sec. 3), to 
whomsoever He will, then to His office as Judge, and then 
to His consequent dignity. Now, says He, God will be 
worshiped and adored in me ; all therefore must honor 
the Son even as they honor the Father ; and all who dis- 
honor the Son shall be condemned. 



166 CHAPTER IV. 

20. In proof of the truth of the claims He calls in the 

testimony of John His forerunner, reminds 

Evidence in ^ i • i it tt- 

proof of this them 01 the voice that was heard at His bap- 
tism, of the mighty works which He had Him- 
self performed, of their own Scriptures, and lastly, of the 
witness of their ancient prophet, Moses. '* For he," adds 
He, ^^vrote of me." (John v. 31-46.) The unbelief of 
His hearers He ascribes distinctly to their denial of the 
teaching of Moses — who had spoken of a prophet to be 
raised up like unto Himself — and especially to the fact that 
they had not Christ's words remaining in them. Sin and 
selfishness, their preference of the falsehood that exalted 
them, to the truth that laid them low (vers. 39-44), had 
diminished their susceptibility of religious impression. 
They loved not God, and were obstinately bent on reject- 
ing their Teacher, and therefore both himself and His mes- 
sage were disowned. 

21. And now the revelation of Christ's personal cha- 
The revelation r^cter sccms Complete. He has been recog- 
L^n^a^charl^^^^^^ ^ized by the Father. Even unclean spirits 
complete. -^g^^^ owucd Him. He heals diseases, exhausts 
Himself with days of weariness and toil, manifesting 
wherever He goes His power and love. He forgives sin. 
He substitutes for the shadowy observances of the Mosaic 
economy, what He as lawgiver pronounced to be substan- 
tial obedience ; and now he claims distinctly the functions 
of God, identity with the Father, together with the honor 
and responsibilities which belonged exclusively to Him. 

Sect. 2. — The Sermon on the Mount. Christ the ful- 
fillment OF THE Law in Morality and in Doctrine. 

22. How Christ as man maintained the holiness aud 
Christ's hoii- ^igi^ii^y ^^ His positiou, is an interesting ques- 
ty^m^a'intlined ^^^^- Coutact with the world must have tended 
by prayer. ^q rufile the tranquility of His feelings; and 



§ 1. THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. I6t 

certainly that contact was more frequent and harassin]^ 
than anything His disciples afterwards knew. We find 
Him now in Galilee and now in Jerusalem, walking several 
times in the course of a few years over nearly the whole of 
Palestine, and even when residing in Capernaum sur- 
rounded with crowds of hearers. He seems to have lived 
in public rather than alone. 

It is certain, hovever, that this activity was sustained 
by meditation and prayer. It was thus he prepared at 
first for His work ; and soon after the disclosures mentioned 
in the previous section, we find him spending the whole 
night in prayer ; an occupation that formed a fitting close 
to His labors in Jerusalem, and as fitting an introduction 
to the selection of His apostles, and the delivery of the 
Sermon on the Mount-. The fact of this prayer is men- 
tioned only by Luke (Luke vi.), though on other occasions 
a similar fact is recorded by other evangelists. 

23. Thus it is that our Lord's was an angelical life (as 
Leighton calls it), devoted both to contempla- Herein our ex- 
tion and to activity. And we need in this re- ^°^p^^' 
spect to copy him. Contemplation we require, that our 
troubled spirits may be quieted ; that truth may produce 
its appropriate impression upon our hearts ; and then acti- 
vity, that we may spend the strength gained by prayer in 
beneficent consecration. True piety ought ever to be en- 
ergetic and practical ; it ought also to be meditative and 
secluded. Days spent among the multitude need nights of 
calmness and devotion. (Matt. xiv. 23 ; Luke vi. 12.) 

25. After this solemn preparation, Christ selected twelve 
of His disciples and constituted them apostles. 

Sermon on the 

Having descended from the mountain where Mount: where 

_. delivered. 

He had prayed for and chosen them. He went 
up to an extended plain in (to 6poj) the mountain district 
of Capernaum, (see Luke compared with Matthew,) and 
in the presence of His disciples and of a large multitude 



168 CHAPTER IV. 

of people, He proceeded to give wliat may be considered 
as a delineation of the moral law of Christianity, considered 
both in itself and its connection with the previous dispen- 
sation. 

Throughout this discourse He seems to have a double 
Object of this object in view — first to correct the misinterpre- 
sermon. tatlou of the prcccpts of the law by Jewish 

teachers, and then to unfold and develope in its utmost 
depth the spirit of the old economy ; indicating, moreover, 
the application of its principles, not only to the Jews, but 
to the whole of the human race. 

25. But this last statement makes it necessary that we 

should retrace our steps. Christ is Himself 

Christ the ful- , ^ ^^^^ ^ ^ . . , ^ n ^ 

fiiiment of the the lulfillment and completion {Ttxrjpi^ai^) of the 
law. If that ancient economy be regarded as 
an outline, Christ in His office and ministry is the reality 
it represented. If it be regarded as the type. He is the 
substance. The type itself therefore we must study — not 
independently, but in its connection with the antitype, in 
order that we may understand the full significance of both. 
The truth, therefore, we mean to illustrate is, that the 
Gospel in all its parts is the completion of a gradual and 
progressive revelation. 

26. The truths and purpose of God are in themselves 
What meant iucapable of either progress or change ; but 
Sve^deveio^^' ^^^ rcvelatiou of those truths is capable of 
ment of truth. ^^^^^^ Apart from divine teaching, the whole 
world of religious truth is shrouded in darkness ; but the 
sun of revelation rises, and ever as it rises the mists are 
scattered, and there is brought out first one prominence 
and then another, till every hill and valley is bathed in 
splendor. The landscape was there before, but it was not 
seen. The development is not of new creations, spreading 
as the light extends ; it is development of light only, show- 
ing, and not forming, the beauty it reveals. 



§ 2. THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 169 

SI. From the first God taught the unity of the Divine 
natnre, but that there was a plurality in the Examples aMo 
Godhead was but indistinctly disclosed. Seve- ^od the Father. 
ral expressions in the very earliest books imply,* and are 
evidently calculated to suggest it. In the later prophets 
the truth comes out with greater distinctness ; but it is in 
the 'New Testament only that it is revealed. 

So also the work of the Holy Spirit is recognized in the 
Old Testament, and with increasing clearness tj^^ jj^jy 
as we approach the times of the Gospel. It ^^^"*' 
is in the New alone, however, that we have a full view of 
His character and work. 

28. This gradual disclosure of the Divine will is still 
more remarkable in the case of our Lord. 

EspeciaHy true 

The first promise contains a prophetic declara- of the work of 

r r Christ. 

tion of mercy. It foretold His coming and 
work, though in mysterious terms. The first act of accept- 
able worship was a type, expressing by an action the faith 
of the offerer in the fulfillment of the first prediction. There 
was to be triumph through suffering, and there was to be 
the substitution of the innocent for the guilty. 

These promises and types were multiplied with the lapse 
of time. In the person or worship of Enoch, of ISToah, of 
Melchisedeck, and of Job, there was much that was typical 

* The first set of expressions which clearly suggest a plurality of per- 
sons in the Godhead, include all those in which " the Angel of the Lord" 
has applied to Him the incommunicable name of Jehovah, or in which 
He speaks in His own name ; Gen xvi. 7. and ver. 13. Similar expres- 
sions may be found in Gen. xxii. 11 — 18; xxxiii. 11 — 13 ; xxxii. 28 — 30,* 
Hosea xii.4,5; Ex. iii. 2 — 15,- xix. 19, 20,- xx. 1; xxiii. 20, 21; com- 
pared with Acts vii. 38; Jos. v. 13 — 15; vi. 2; Isa. Ixiii. 8, 9 ; Mai. iii. 1^ 

Another set of expressions includes such as these — " Let us make man 
in our own image," and the use of the plural noun to indicate the true 
God, with a singular verb. Gen. i. 1; Ps. Iviii. 12 (Heb.) ; Prov. ix. 10 
(Heb.) ; &c. 

The third set includes such passages as Num. vi. 22 — 27; Isa. vi. 3 — 8 ; 
Isa. xlviii. 16; Jer. xxiii. 5, 6, 7. 

15 



170 CHAPTER IT. 

or predictive, and still more in tlie history of Abraham 
and Ms immediate descendants. 

Under the Mosaic dispensation other typical persons, 
and places, and things were instituted, and the design of 
these institutions was more distinctly explained. 

Between the days of Samuel and Malachi, a period of 
six hundred years, a succession of prophets were sent, who 
gradually set forth the person and work of the Messiah. 
They foretell, too, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and 
the general prevalence of the truth. 

In the EXTENT of their predictions the prophets have not 
gone beyond the first promise, which was intended to give 
hope of a complete redemption. But in their clearness 
in the detailed account they give of what redemption in- 
volved, and of what it cost, the difference is most marked ; 
while in the same qualities the Gospel has gone at least as 
far beyond the prophets as the prophets had gone beyond 
the law. 

29. It is noticeable, too, that the predictions of the Old 
So of practical Tcstamcut and its practical doctrines go hand 
holiness. -j^ hand. The revelation spreads on each 

point. The light that illuminates the living spring or the 
harvest field of truth, shows with equal clearness the way 
that leads to them. The law gives divine precept with 
greater clearness than previous dispensations ; and the 
prophets go beyond the law, occupying a middle place 
between it and the Gospel. They insist more fully on 
personal holiness as distinguished from national and cere- 
monial purity, and their sanctions have less reference to 
temporal promises. The law had said, " Thou shalt love 
the Lord thy God with all thy heart," and the extent of 
this precept nothing could exceed. The prophets expound, 
and enforce, and animate it with a new spirit, and direct 
its application to greater holiness. The rule of life be- 
comes in their hands increasingly luminous and practical. 



§ 2. THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 171 

30. This gradual development of the truth may be illus- 
trated from the law and the Gospel. Mark, Theiiiustra- 
for example, how under the ancient economy, turTofhoiinrss' 
the idea of the holiness of God was revealed, ^^^w taught. 
The heathen nations have no word which properly repre- 
sents this attribute, and to the Jews it needed to be sug- 
gested by a special institution. In preparation for this 
arrangement, all animals were divided from the first into 
clean and unclean. From the clean, one was afterwards 
chosen without spot or blemish ; a peculiar tribe, selected 
from the other tribes, was appointed to present it, the 
offering being first washed with pure water, and the priest 
himself undergoing a similar ablution. Neither priest nor 
victim, however, much less the offerer, was deemed suffi- 
ciently holy to come into the Divine presence ; but the 
offering was made without the holy place. The idea of 
the infinite purity of God was thus suggested to the minds 
of observers ; and holiness in things created came to mean, 
under the law, purification for sacred uses. Under the 
Gospel it has higher significance, and is taught by an infi- 
nitely holier sacrifice. Now it involves freedom from sin, 
and the possession by spiritual intelligences *'of a Divine 
nature. '^ 

The demerit of sin, and the doctrine of an atonement, 
were taught in words taken from an equally _ 

^ . . ^ J The guilt of sin, 

instructive rite, though still imperfectly. The i^ow taught 

' ^ i J under the Law 

victim was slain, and its blood, which was the and under the 

Gospel. 

LIFE, sprinkled upon the mercy-seat and to- 
wards the holy place, the abode of the Invisible King ; and 
while the people prayed in the outer court, they beheld the 
dark volume of smoke ascending from the sacrifice which 
was burning in their stead. How mysteriously, yet plainly, 
did this suggest that God's justice was a consuming fire, 
and that the souls of the people escaped through a vica- 
rious atonement I 



It 2 CHAPTER IV. 

The moral lesson, it will be noticed, of both these exam- 
ples, is identical with the teaching of the Gospel ; but how 
much clearer and fuller are the statements of the second 
economy than those of the first. And if we compare these 
two revelations with an intermediate one — for example the 
53rd chapter of Isaiah, where the Great Victim is repre- 
sented as God's servant, and as Himself dying for the ini- 
quity of the people, and as making intercession for trans- 
gressors, the gradual development appears plain. What 
was ritual at first is here mysteriously linked with some 
human sufferer; but who he is, and who are to profit by 
his sufferings, are questions unsolved till we turn to the 
Gospel, and there we find that both predictions, the type 
and the prophecy, are fulfilled and completed in the cross. 

If we compare the precepts of the Pentateuch on repent- 
ance, with those of the prophets on the same duty,* or the 
statements of both, on the relation between the Jews, or 
the world generally, and Him who came to enlighten the 
Gentiles as well as His people Israel ; or mark the increa- 
sing clearness and spirituality of the whole horizon of 
spiritual truth as the dawn of the Gospel-day drew on, we 
shall not fail to be struck with the consistency and yet 
gradual development of the whole. Throughout there will 
be found evidences of the presence of that God who, as 
Bishop Butler expresses it, appears ^'deliberate in all His 
operations," and who accomplishes his ends by slow and 
successive stages, whether they refer to the changes of the 
seasons, the movements of providence, or the more formal 
disclosures of His will.f 

* Deut. XXX. 1 — 6; Ez. xviii.,- Isa. Ivii. 15, 16; Ps. li. 

f Sometimes this gradual development of truth is spoken of as suc- 
cessive dispensations — the Adamic, the Patriarchal, the Mosaic, and the 
Christian. Dispensation meaning in this connection the way in which 
God deals with man. The Adamic continued only during man's inno- 
ceucyj the Patriarchal lasted 2,500 years; (Gen. iii. ; Ex. xx. ;) the 



I 



§ 2 THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. It3 

31. With the books of the Gospel, however, (it must be 
added,) the development of the Evanp^elical 

/ ^ , ^ Developmeni 

truth (SO far as the present state is concerned) ceases with the 

^ ^ ^ Gospel. 

ends. There may be passages in the Bible 
whose full meaning is not yet discovered, and which are 
perhaps ** reserved,'^ as Boyle expressed it, ''to quell some 
future heresy, or solve some yet unformed doubt, or con- 
found some error that hath not yet a name," or proved, by 
fresh prophetic evidence, that it came from God ; but we 
are to look for no further revelation, nor are we to regard 
as developments of Scripture doctrine the additions or ex- 
positions of men. The gradual development of truth in 
Scripture is one thing ; accretions that overlay that truth 
is another ; and it is for the first only that we contend. 

32. Two practical conclusions may be gathered from 
these facts, in addition to the great lessons for ^wo practical 
which they are here adduced. conclusions. 

First. The Bible must be regarded, not as a series of 
distinct revelations, but as one and indivisible. Revelation one 
Doctrines clearly revealed in the New Testa- and indivisible, 
ment depend for many of their evidences, and yet more for 
their illustrations, on the Old. The one dispensation is 
the completion of the other. The first is the type, or the 
early figure ; the second, the heavenly reality. The nature 
of the '' good things to come'^ may be learned both from 
the shadow and from the things themselves. 

Hence, secondly ^ we have an important test of truth, and 
of the relative value of truth. If it be said, 

« . Truths com- 

for example, that the sacrifice and priesthood mon to both 

_ ^, . t -y * ,1 r^ 1 dispensations. 

of Christ are not revealed m the Gospel, or 

their subordinate truths, we look to the law ; and if it be 

maintained that there is now no priesthood and no sacri- 

Mosaic 1,500 more. The Patriarchal contains many of the first princi- 
ples of the Mosaic, in sacrifice and circumcision, for example, as do both 
dispoasations of the Gospel. 

15* 



174 CHAPTER IV. 

fice, either we have a series of shadowy observances with- 
out reference or meaning ; the blood, the altar, the holy 
place, the propitiatory intercession, are all types of nothing ; 
and the previous economy is robbed of all its significance ; 
or if it be supposed that the earlier dispensation is abol- 
ished, the substitution of the Gospel in its place implies a 
change in the very principles of the Divine government. 
Under that dispensation law was inexorable ; now it is 
yielding and remiss. Then repentance alone was power- 
less to save ; now it is mighty and efficacious. At first, 
man was pardoned through an atonement ; at least, by pre- 
rogative. As it is, the mystery is solved. Revelation is a 
consistent whole ; the doctrines of the later manifestations 
unfold their meaning when studied amidst the patterns of 
the earlier ; and each dispensation is strengthened by its 
agreement with the other. 

33. The object of these remarks, however, is chiefly to 

explain our Lord's relation to previous dis- 
which Christ peusatious. As they were typical, He came 

fulfills the law. "; 7^ XT. r ^ ^ \^' x-L 1 

to complete them (rtV/ypcocrat) ; putting the sub- 
stance in the place of the shadow. As they were predic- 
tive, He fuljills them. As they inculcate precepts and 
truths in relation to God and man, he develops and ex- 
plains them ; giving them a clearer, wider, and more spi- 
ritual application to the various duties of human life, and 
making them and Himself a full and perfect revelation of 
the will and character of His Father. 

34. With the view of commencing this fuller revelation, 
Scene amid ^^^ Saviour uow addrcsscd His disciples and 
men Va^s'den- ^hc multitude. They were assembled in the 
vered. early morning (Luke vi. 13), amidst some of 
the finest scenery in the world, under an oriental sky, to 
listen to words such as were never before uttered on earth. 
God spake to Moses and to the Israelites in Sinai Avith a 
voice so terrible, that the people desired to hear it no 



§ 2. THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 175 

more ; and even Moses said, '' I exceedingly fear and 
quake ;" but Christ spoke with meekness and love, in tones 
and amid scenes vi^hich were in beautiful harmony with the 
truths He came to reveal. ^' The law came by Moses, but 
grace and truth by Jesus Christ." 

35. The people were evidently gathered together with 
curious excited feelino:. Many of them had 

^ *' ^ ^ Spoken by no 

witnessed His miracles ; some saw in Him the common teach- 
er, 
promised Messiah ; others, at the least, a teacher 

from God. The character of the sermon, and the phrases 
employed, plainly indicate that more than a common teacher 
was speaking ; and at its close His hearers acknowledged, 
that this was also their impression ; for He taught, said 
they, *'as one having authority, and not as the scribes." 
(Matt. vii. 29.) 

Most of His hearers, it is probable, had the common ex- 
pectation of their nation. They looked for a Expectation of 
temporal deliverer, hoped for the establishment ^^^ bearers. 
of a temporal kingdom, and counted as a matter of course 
on their admission to all its immunities. 

36. At the very outset of His discourse Christ comes 
into collision with all these carnal expecta- -piTst pecuiiari- 
tions. ^ The nature of His kingdom and the flour's doc- ^^' 
character of its members are at once revealed. *"°^' 

He announces Himself not as a judge of the heathen, nor 
as an avenger of the wrongs of His country ; but as the 
bestower of spiritual blessings, and that upon those only 
who had no hope in themselves. (Matt. v. 3-11.) He 
formally blesses those who are poor in spirit, who are con- 
scious of their spiritual poverty, and then those who under 
the influence of this feeling have a deep sense of guilt and 
imperfection. This disposition, again, gives rise in them 
to a spirit of humble meekness ; to a strong desire after 
righteousness. In proportion as this desire is fulfilled and 
they obtain forgiveness, there springs up a compassionate 



n6 CHAPTER IV. 

love for others ; they endeavor to impart to their brethren 
the peace which they themselves enjoy. The world, how- 
ever, misunderstands their aims, and dislikes what they 
are seeking to diffuse. They are therefore reviled and per- 
secuted ; and for this condition, too, a special blessing is 
reserved. 

To each of these classes Christ makes a promise of grace 
and love proportioned to the character of the receiver. To 
the poor is given the possession of a kingdom ; to the 
mourner, comfort ; to the suffering meek, lordship and do- 
mion ; to the hungry, the supply of their wants ; to the 
merciful, mercy ; to those whose hearts are pure, the vision 
of God ; and to the promoters of peace, the recognition of 
their resemblance to him. 

These promises are interwoven, it may be observed, with 
quotations from ancient predictions, explaining, appropri- 
ating, and fulfilling them all. 

After this introduction, which is common to both Mat- 
thew and Luke, our Lord proceeds to state 

The promised 

blessedness not His rektiou to the Law. He first intimates, 

intended to 

take men from howcvcr, that the blcsscdncss He had an- 

duty. ' 

nounced to his disciples was not intended to 
justify any abandonment of the world. ^^ Ye are," says He, 
^' the salt of the earth, and the light of the world." As if 
He had said : ^^Te are a noble and indispensable element 
in this lower state ; the image and means of its purity, the 
secret of its preservation, especially as through you the 
Spirit of God will exercise his enlightening, quickening, 
and consecrating power. What salt is in the covenant — 
what it is in preserving from decay, in seasoning and puri- 
fying acceptable sacrifice — what light is to a darkened and 
guilty world — such are ye The kingdom is yours — by and 
by ye shall enter it — but now I leave you to your work, 
and after work will come your reward. He that endureth 
to the end, the same shall be saved." 



§ 2. THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 'HT 

3T. Then follows (in Matthew only, as is most fitting) a 
disclosure of his relation to the Law. ''I am chnst's reia- 
come,'^ says He, ''to give you a deeper insight ^ion to the law. 
into its requirements, and therefore to exhibit a noble and 
perfect performance of them. (Matt. v. 17, 18.) Nor let 
it be supposed that mine is a revelation unknown to the 
ancient prophets. It is, on the contrary, the fulfillment of 
tJieir predictions and of the law itself. If that law be 
regarded as a collection of moral precepts, I appear to 
disclose their depth, to yield them in myself complete 
satisfaction, and afterwards to show to my church in its 
practical holiness the fullness of all that purity which they 
demand. If it be regarded as a collection of ritual insti- 
tutes, I appear to achieve the great sacrifice of my own 
oblation, and then to secure to my church in its holy con- 
secration the realized spirit of the ancient theocracy, that 
all my disciples may become kings and priests unto God.^' 
That all this fullness of meaning was in the mind of our 
blessed Lord, is plain ; for He contemplates the fulfillment 
of the law as extending into the distant future, and as 
reaching in fact to the end of time. '' Heaven and earth,'' 
says He, '' shall pass away ; but the law shall not pass 
away till all be fulfilled.^' Most of what was ceremonial 
ended in Him. What was spiritual and moral is to be 
embodied by His grace and power in His church. 

38. In studying the following verses (21-48), there are 
two rules laid down by the commentators, of 

^ rT^^ • p T t I^ules for in- 

great importance.* The sayings oi our Lord terpreting 
herein are all to be regarded as expressing the sition of the 
spiritual sense of the Old Testament com- 
mands ; and His explanations (with His moral precepts 
generally) must themselves be interpreted in His spirit. 
The first rule Luther has well illustrated in his 

Illustrated. 

commentary on the passage : '' Mark,'' says he, 

* Tholuck. 



Its CHAPTER IV. 

^' how Christ takes up the command. Ye have heard from 
the Pharisee how Moses ordained, and how, from ancient 
times, it has been said, ' Thou shalt not kill;' and on that 
account you flatter yourselves as persons diligent in study- 
ing and practising God's commands as they have learned 
them from his own prophet. You build upon and boast 
of it, that it is Moses who tells you, ' Thou shalt not kill ;' 
you stop short, however, at the letter, and will let it have 
no other than the plain meaning the sound conveys ; and 
thus you darken the words with your crude assertions and 
corrupt glosses, so that it is impossible to see what they 
imply or express. But do you suppose He speaks merely 
of your hand when he says, * Thou shalt not kill ?' What 
then dost thou mean ? It implies not simply the hand, 
the foot, or tongue, or any other single member, but all 
that thou art in body and in soul. He addresses himself 
not to the hand, but to the whole person. Hence it is that 
' Thou shalt not kill,' expresses as much as if he had said : 
"Whatever members you have, and however you may kill — 
whether by hand, or tongue, or heart, or gesture — whether 
you look fiercely and refuse with your eyes to let your 
neighbor live, or whether you mean with your ears to kill, 
and hate to hear him praised, all is condemned ; for then 
is your heart and all within you so disposed as to wish him 
dead. Though, therefore, the hand be motionless, and the 
tongue silent ; and though eyes and ears refrain, still may 
the heart be full of murder and blood."* 

So also must we interpret the language of our Lord in 
the spirit in which it was spoken. He speaks broadly and 
impressively, reckoning upon the candor and common sense 
of His hearers to apply His truth: ^'Whosoever shall 
say to his brother, ^ Thou fool,' shall be in danger of hell- 
fire;" and yet sin is folly, and the sinner is really a fool. 

* From Luther, slightly abridged. 



§ 2. THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 1^9 

And is this language always forbidden ? 'No ; our common 
sense and the spirit of our Master teach the exception. 
^'If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out." Shall the 
members suffer for the unholy desires of the heart ? No ; 
but common sense and the spirit show us the meaning ; 
better lose an object as dear as the eye than risk your soul. 
'' Let your yea be yea, and your nay, nay ; for what is 
more than this cometh of evil." Is then every oath for- 
bidden ? Nay, but it is elsewhere said to be an end of 
strife. God, and our Lord, and His Apostles, have all ap- 
pealed (as the oath does) to God in confirmation of their 
statements. Again, the spirit limits the precept and shows 
the meaning. 

Let it be remembered, moreover, that in all the teaching 
of our Lord there is much that is figurative. 

T . So of our 

A happy figure is, as Augustine expressed it. Lord's teaching 
''little to the little, and great to the great;" 
intelligible to the child, and when received into the mind, 
is like a seed, which, through the fructifying influence of 
thought and meditation, casts off the husk and becomes a 
tree. It is something addressed to all men, and to all parts 
of men ; fancy, wit, intellect, and feeling, only it must be 
interpreted with care. So the following are to be inter- 
preted ; ''Whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, 
turn to him the other also;" "Let not thy left hand 
know what thy right hand doeth ;" "When thou fastest 
anoint thy head and wash thy face ;" " Let the dead bury 
the dead;" "Salute no man by the way." Expressions 
that have a beautiful spiritual meaning, but not all the 
meaning which the figures may seem to imply. After all 
the pains which may be taken, however, to reach the full 
sense of the teaching of our Lord, it will remain a ques- 
tion whether we have seen down into the depth of His 
meaning. His words are ever like the deep sea, intensely 
clear, but immeasurably profound. 



180 CHAPTER lY. 

39. His morality, as between man" and man, is summed 
Morality of the ^P ^^ ^^o forms ; in each case in a single pre- 
Gospei. ^^^^ rj^Yie first is, '' copy God ;" " Be ye per- 

fect even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" (v. 
48) ; and the second, which is, perhaps, more direct and prac- 
tical in its application, *^ Whatsoever ye would that men 
should do unto you, do ye even so unto them" (vii. 12). 
40 Our Lord then proceeds to expose and correct pre- 
valent opinions or practices in relation to reli- 
relation to re- gious duty. All ostcutatiou Hc absolutcly 
igious u y. (.Q^^g^^g . whether in alms-giving, in fasting, 
The love of the ^^ 1^ prayer. Prayer itself He explains and 
^^''^^- illustrates. The besetting sin of our nature, 

the eager desire of earthly treasures. He rebukes (Matt, 
vi. 1-24) for a threefold reason ; the treasure itself is pe- 
rishable — the pursuit of such treasure as our great aim, is 
a perversion of our powers ; and if it be pursued, it must 
be at the cost of heaven ; for no man can serve Mammon 
and God. 

Having cautioned His hearers against this tendency, He 
further forbids all anxious feeling in relation 
even to subsistence. Distract not your minds 
with the question what ye shall eat, or wherewithal ye shall 
be clothed ; your anxiety is useless (v. 2Y). It is heathen- 
ish (v. 32). It is a denial of the love, or an invasion of 
the province of God (v. 32). Spend your energies, there- 
fore, on duty temporal and spiritual, and leave the issues 
of your diligence with Him (v. 33). 

After these general precepts, He goes on to condemn 
Uncharitable the Spirit of harsh and uncharitable judgment 
judgments. -^ which His hcarcTS were especially prone to 
indulge, and bids them direct their attention chiefly to the 
correction of their own faults. '' When these are removed, 
it will be time enough to examine and censure your neigh- 
bors." (Matt. vii. 1-5.) 



§ 2. THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 181 

41. These precepts seem to have produced a double im- 
pression. Some sneered and others were hum- 

*^ Results on dif 

bled. The first class He rebuked (vii. 6), and ferent classes 

of hearers. 

the second He cheered, leading their thoughts 
to the sufficiency of Divine grace, and presenting encour- 
agement to confiding and affectionate prayer (v. T-11). 

His discourse is closed with a brief description of the 
different paths He and His hearers had been End of the dif- 
considering — obedience ending in life, disobe- purs^uecTby^^^ 
dience in death (vii. 14). To the one termi- *^^™- 
nation, He tells them they can be led only through a nar- 
row gate, and by a narrow way ; to the other the way is 
broad, easy, and plain. Some, He intimates, may attempt 
to combine the guilty indulgences of the broad road, with 
a claim to religious influence, and a heavenly reward. The 
attempt, however, our Lord repudiates, and teaches all to 
repudiate it too. *' By their fruits ye shall know them'' 
(v. 20). Their end, He tells His hearers, will not differ 
from their course ; and that course will at length appear 
to be as foolish and disastrous as it is inconsiderate and 
sinful (v. 26). 

42. Never was morality revealed so humbling, so en- 
nobling, so spiritual. It makes the character 

of God our model,, and the grace of God our racter of this 
encouragement. It brings us at once into con- ^^^^ ^ ^' 
tact with Him, and the blessed result is a nobleness and 
reality of holiness, as far removed from bitterness and 
hypocrisy, as it is from selfishness and pride. 

43. These truths appear and re-appear during the min- 
istry of our Lord, sometimes with ample illus- jtg lessons re- 
tration, and sometimes in new and instructive p^^*^*^- 
connections, but the substance is not changed. What is 
here said may be said more at length, but more than this, 
it seems hardly possible to say. These other passages, how- 
ever, may all be examined with instruction and advantage. 

16 



182 CHAPTER IV. 

The forbearance, and humility, and love, which form the 
groundwork of all inward relierion, are repeat- 

Ilumility, &c. ^ T A A f. VI 

edly enforced by our Lord, and often with 
touching emphasis, as in Matt, xviii. 1-35, and the parallel 
passages ; again in Luke xvii. 1-10 ; and again in Mark 
X, 1, 3-16. The grace of humility is indeed expressly 
commended and illustrated on no less than seven different 
occasions. 

The contrary vices of ambition and contention are point- 
edly rebuked in Matt. xx. 20-28, and in Luke 
xxii. 24-30 ; Christ reminding His disciples in 
the last passage, that the chief distinction among them is 
to consist in a larger share of service, and in more exhaust- 
ing toils ; ''for whosoever will be chief among you, let him 
be your servant.'' These precepts He enforced by His 
own example, and illustrated from the spirit of little chil- 
dren, whom He took and set in the midst. 

But though this is the true spirit of His gospel, and His 
disciples were to be sustained in cherishino* it, 

Persecutions. ^ 

He warns them that men will resent their 
efforts, reject their message, and visit them with bitter per- 
secution, such as He Himself encountered, (Matt. x. 16; 
xvi. 24-2T ; Luke xiii. 26-35 ; xxi. 12-19 ; John xv. 18-27 ; 
xvi. 33,) assuring His disciples in several of these pas- 
sages, that they are to be conformed to His sufferings, 
(though in an iufinitely lower sense,) and that, having suf- 
fered with Him, they shall also be partakers of His glory. 

The spirituality and comprehensiveness of the Divine 
The spiritual- ^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^ great commaudmcuts, He illus- 
hen^s?^eneTs^o^f tratcd iu most of His discourses, especially in 
tiie law. jjig answer to the lawyer. (Mark xii. 28—34.) 

Its application to all of every nation. He taught in reply 
to the question of another lawyer, at an earlier period 
of His ministry. (Luke x. 25-2t.) The spirit of the law 
was still further illustrated in His fearful denunciations of 



§ 2. THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 183 

the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, (Luke xi. 31-54 ; Matthew 
xii. 38-42; xvi. 1-12; John ^iii. 2-10,) and especially 
in Matthew xxiii. 13-39. The law of divorce He also 
took occasion to explain, freeing it from licentious abuse. 
(Matthew xix. 3-12.) 

Uncharitable judgments Christ rebuked from the history 
of the Galileans, and at the same time corrected uncharitable 
the impression which the Jews had gained J^^s°^^°*8. 
from a perversion of their own dispensation, to the eftect 
that providential calamities were not so much the evidence 
of the general disorder of human nature, as of individual 
guilt. (Luke xiii. 1-9.) The persecuting spirit of His 
disciples He also severely condemns. (Luke ix. 56.) 

The great lesson of prayer He repeated, (Luke xi. 1-13,) 
also the lesson of confidence in the provi- prayer. Trust, 
dence of God ; (Luke xii. 1-59 ;) frequently ^^P^^^ence. 
recognizing, in the directest forms, the dependence of man 
for all spiritual blessings and Divine attainment, on the 
sovereign grace of His Father. (Matt. xi. 25-2"! ; Luke 
X. lY-24 ; John xvii.) 

44. These passages are all independent, it will be no- 
ticed, of His parables and miracles, each of Miracles, para- 
which was intended to set forth some great of^chrrst in- ^^ 
moral or spiritual truth. They are indepen- moraftJrcii?'^ 
dent, moreover, of the acts of His life, which ^^^' 

were in themselves an embodiment of divinest law, exhi- 
biting in deeds what His teaching set forth in the common 
tongue. 

45. What our Lord taught in relation to Himself, (faith 
in Him being represented elsewhere as the The great evan- 
foundation of all acceptable service,) and in tharmomiltp 
relation to the union of His disciples, will be foith?tau-iit 
noticed hereafter. It is enough to state, in ei.-ewhere. 
passing, that Christ regards the feeling of reliance on 
God's covenant mercy as essential to obedience. Without 



184 CHAPTER IV. 

it there is no true sense of sin, no recognition of God, no 
desire for holiness, and therefore no virtue. The connec- 
tion between these excellencies and faith, which last is but 
a persuasion by the heart of our true condition, and of the 
fullness of the mercy that saves us, is one of the sublimest, 
as it is one of the most important practical truths of the 
Gospel. 

§ 3. Christ's teaching in relation to His own work. 

46. In the last section, Christ appears as the expounder 
Christ pre- ^^ ^hc moral law. In this character the peo- 
therdS"^'' Pl^ admired Him. As a worker of miracles 
eures, ^^^j q^^q hoTQ testimony to His power and 
grace. But He had other and more significant lessons, 
and was soon to show how far the Jews, and how far His 
own disciples, even, were prepared to receive them. A 
right understanding of the Divine law, and admiration of 
Christ's works and character, were far from being all the 
Gospel which our nature required. 

It needed time, however, to prepare the people for fur- 
though gradu- ^^^^ disclosures ; and in the interval our Lord 
ally. proceeded with His mission of love, revealing 

as much in miracles, and afterwards in parables, as they 
were able to bear. 

47. The first narrative that meets us after the sermon 

on the mount, is the healing of the centurion's 

Miracle of the i -<Kr -i • • n t • i 

centurion's ser- scrvaut. Matthew, Writing for Jewish con- 
verts, omits the fact that this soldier sent to 
our Lord through the Jews, as it might have ministered to 
the old national pride. (Matt. viii. 5.) Luke, writing for 
Gentile converts, mentions it to keep in mind the favor in 
which the Jews once stood to God. (Luke vii. 1, &c.) 
With like moral purpose, Luke does not notice our Lord's 
comment on this Gentile's faith as fully as Matthew does ; 
the one inserting what might check the corrupt tendency 






§ 3. Christ's tkaching. 185 



of his Jewish readers, and the other omitting what might 
have strengthened similar feelings in the minds of Gentiles. 
(Matt. viii. 11, 12.) 

The quality which drew forth our Saviour's remarks was 
the centurion's faith ; and involving, as it did^ ^^low^ import- 
a recognition of Christ's relation to the spiri- our Lord^s^^ '"^ 
tual world, it is very beautiful. Christ appears p*^^^^* 
to him as the true Imperator ;* the ruler of both heaven 
and of earth. ^' Speak the word only, and my servant shall 
be healed." 

48. Luke's next miracle is highly characteristic of His 
Gospel. It is the history of the widow's son, 

her ONLY son ; a word which he uses with the^wSowl ° 
quite touching human emphasis. (Luke vii. 
12.) We find it again in the case of the daughter of 
Jairus ; and again in the miracle of the child possessed 
with an evil spirit, (viii. 42 ; ix. 38.) The whole narrative 
is rich in suggestions ; and exhibits the tenderness of the 
character of Christ in striking contrast with the dignity 
and power ascribed to Him in the earlier verse. 

49. Though these miracles had a deep spiritual mean- 
ing, a direct spiritual revelation of Christ had a spiritual 
not yet been given in Galilee. At Jerusalem cerning him^"" 
he had distinctly announced his office in all self at hand, 
its dignity, and had excited bitter hostility amongst the 
leaders of the people. (John v.) He had intimated, more- 
over, that the time was at hand when all true obedience 
would be tested by the way in which men received His mes- 
sage, and submitted to His claims ; (ver. 20 ;) but we do 
not find, as yet, any announcement of these truths to 
His countrymen in Galilee. It was now, however, at 
hand. 

* Trench on the Miracles. 

16* 



186 CHAPTER IV. 

50. For the last several months John the Baptist had 
been in prison, paying the penalty of his 
messengers to fidelity; and, though he had long ago borne 
witness to the person and ofi&ce of our Lord, 
he, or perhaps the little band that still adhered to him, 
was not prepared for all the results of His mission. (Matt, 
xi. 1-6; Luke vii. 18, 19.) He perhaps expected a tem- 
poral king, or had counted at least on personal favor. 
His own protracted imprisonment had, perhaps, weakened 
his faith ; and had certainly weakened the faith of his fol- 
lowers. He therefore sends them to Christ, not to ask 
whether He was a prophet, for this fact he does not seem 
to doubt, but whether He was the Messianic prophet whom 
Moses foretold (npo^ri'tTji o ip%6ti£vos). In reply our Lord 
appeals to His miracles, and quotes a passage from the 
ancient prophets, applicable only to the Messiah, and ful- 
filled in Himself; adding, in the hearing of John's disci- 
ples, though not of the multitude, ''Blessed is he whoso- 
ever shall not be offended in Me." He then proceeds to 
honor and defend before the people the ministry of John, 
and tells them the character which they had 

Christ's reply • i i i • tt 

and defence of gained by their treatment of His message. 
'' God," says He in substance, '' finds it impos- 
possible to meet the expectations of unsanctified men. He 
has addressed them by different ministries, and has adapted 
His truth to their condition, but all in vain. When one 
servant came mourning, men had no tears ; when another 
came in joy, men did not dance. It is impossible to please 
them. A just God is approved by the conscience, but soon 
becomes an object of dread and hatred to their hearts. A 
God all mercy might please their hearts, but by their con- 
science would certainly be condemned. At last, however, 
the wisdom of God will commend itself, in all its disclo- 
sures, and methods of disclosure, to His children." 



§ 1. Christ's teaching. 181 

51. A significant fact soon threw light on the intima- 
tions which Christ was about to e-ive. He had 

^ Dines with a 

entered the house of a Pharisee, at his invita- Pharisee; re- 

ceivesawoman 

tion, to dine, and had met with a kindly recep- who is a sin- 
tion. (Luke vii. 36.) But Christ's higher cha- 
racter is not that of a common guest, nor yet of a worker 
of miracles. Neither did Simon, nor on an earlier occa- 
sion, did Nicodemus fully see His power or grace. This 
favor was reserved for a humbler visitant. A poor woman 
enters the house, a sinner of the city ; and after an inter- 
view with Him, left it with a clearer knowledge of our Lord, 
and with holier satisfaction with His teaching, than either 
the Jewish rabbi or the courteous host had gained. No- 
thing rightly introduces us to Christ but sin, significance of 
and nothing rightly reveals Him but a sense of *^^^ ^^^^' 
sin. His highest character is, that He forgives and can- 
cels it. He is the prophet and the teacher, but he is above 
all the Redeemer ; and those only know Him who come to 
Him with this feeling. So she came, weeping and anoint- 
ing His feet, and wiping them with her hair. Her faith 
opened the door of her heart, and entertained Christ there 
as He most loved to be entertained ; while everything else-, 
the hospitality of the Pharisee and the enquiries of Nico- 
demus, left Him still without. And it is this truth which 
Christ came to reveal — that men are lost, and that He ap- 
peared to seek and to save them. Sin only leads us to 
Him ; and He leads us only as sinners to God. The same 
truths — that a sense of need is the qualification that helps 
men to see Christ, and that Christ's highest character is 
that of a Saviour — came out in other parts of the inspired 
narrative, but nowhere in action more clearly than here. 

With true Pharisaic spirit, the host saw in this reception 
of a sinner, an evidence against the Messiahship of his 
guest ; but Christ rebuked his reasoning. (Luke vii. 39.) 
The gift of her love He honored before the feast of His 



188 CHAPTER IV. 

host ; not as the ground of her acceptance, but as the evi- 
dence and fruit of it. '^ Much has been forgiven ; for 
(thou seest) she loves much." ''Thy faith (adds He, to 
make this truth clear) hath saved thee. Go in peace." 

2. It is in connection with some such scene, and pro- 
Christ's excia- ^^blj with this, that our Lord answered and 
mation. ^^^^ , '' I thank thee, Father, Lord of hea- 

ven and earth, because thou hast hidden these things 
from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto 
babes. . . . '' Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy 
laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you 
and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart; and 
ye shall find rest unto your souls." (Matt. xi. 25-30.) 
Here are clearly the rudiments of a teaching not less im- 
portant, and infinitely more cheering, than the right expo- 
sition of the law. (Luke viii. 1.) But these lessons were 
to receive in a few weeks an ampler explanation. 

53. The feeling that found utterance, in the case of the 
woman who was a sinner, in tears and gifts, prompted 
others of her sex to services of personal kindness. (Luke 
^ ^ viii. 2, 3.) The sorrows of the one, and the 

Christ served "^ 

md followed active labors of the other, were alike accepted, 

by women. 

and were both probably the fruits of conscious 
forgiveness and spiritual blessing. 

54. And now commences the second circuit of Galilee. 

In company with His disciples, our Lord 

The second and j- ./ i y 

third circuit of visitcd cvcry city and village, preaching the 
glad tidings of the kingdom. (Luke viii. 1.) 
A third time was the journey taken by the apostles (ix. 1) ; 
and afterwards by the seventy (x. 1) ; all working and 
preaching as they went. 

At the commencement of this tour our Lord healed the 
Miracles ^lau posscssed of a devi], blind, and dumb; 

bS^n^ng*o?^ the Scribes blaspheming, and asking further 
th?se journeys, g-^^^g ^f j^-g j^iggion. He then, with His dis^ 



§ 3. Christ's teaching. 189 

ciples, crossed the lake of Tiberias, healing the demoniacs 
of Gadara ; raising the daughter of Jairus ; stopping the 
issue of blood ; opening the eyes of the blind, and casting 
out a dumb spirit. (Luke xi. 14 ; viii. 26, 41-56.) Through- 
out the whole of these miracles we trace a double charac- 
teristic. Everywhere the destructive power of the devil is 
rebuked, and the redeeming power of the Saviour is re- 
vealed. If He judged at all, it is sin or unbelief, not the 
sinner. The poor and guilty are ever welcome. 

55. Every act of healing, moreover, performed on the 
bodies of men, represented significantly the 

. . . Lessons taught 

spiritual healing that they required ; and ex- in these mira- 
cepting the miracles that were wrought upon 
the devils, or upon the sea, all taught the necessity of a 
sense of need and faith. When the poor sufferer, who had 
a fountain of uncleanness in her very flesh, said : ^' If I 
may but touch the hem of His garment, I shall be clean ;" 
He replied : ^'Daughter, thy faith hath saved thee; go 
in peace." (Luke viii. 48.) *' Pear not,'' said he again, 
^*only believe." (Mark v. 36.) ^'Believe ye that I am 
able to do this unto you ? And they said. Yea, Lord. 
According to your faith be it unto you." (Matt. ix. 28, 29.) 
How instructive is this truth — that faith, which is nothing 
in itself, is everything under the Gospel, because it places 
us in living connection with Him in whom all is stored 1 

56. And now that the coming of the kingdom of God 
has been twice announced throughout Galilee, Further notice 
and Christ's character as a teacher revealed, the ?he^twel^7 ""^ 
time seems come for more spiritual disclosures, ^^'^^^^s- 

But the result of the labors of the disciples is instruc- 
tive, and first claims our regard. Twice during his per- 
sonal ministry did our Lord commission and send forth 
His disciples. To the tribes of Israel, He first sent the 
twelve ; afterwards the seventy (a number answering to 
what the Jews supposed to be the number of the nations of 



190 CHAPTER IV. 

the earth) ; and now the former return to tell the success 
of their message. 

He sent them out to announce the approach of the king- 
object of their ^^^ ^^ hcaveu ; He conferred upon them the 
mission. power of Working miracles; He bade them 

make no provision for their journey, but trust in God ; to 
be content with whatever was offered to them ; to abide in 
the first house that was kindly opened to them, and thence 
to extend their labors round it. (Luke ix. 1-6.) In the 
end they found their wants all supplied, and they admitted 
that they had lacked nothing. (Luke xxii. 35.) In their 
work they were to combine purity with wisdom, the quali- 
ties of the serpent and dove. 

As soon as He had sent them, He Himself went forth to 
Christ Himself tcach and preach *^ in their cities ;" thus show- 
tempirfnT-^" iug that uudcr His kingdom He gives no com- 
ousiy. mands which He does not Himself obey. (Matt, 

xi. 1.) He first bears the cross, and then says to His dis- 
ciples: ''Follow Me." 

6t. He seems to have selected a well-known spot at the 
head of the lake, as the place of meeting after 

The twelve re- . . 

turn; and com- this first missiouary tour was completed. *' The 
Christ the re- apostlcs," wc are told, ''gathered themselves 
together, and told Him all things, both what 
they had done and what they had taught." (Mark vi. 30.) 
How delightful is this confidence I They told Him of 
their failures and of their success ; of their wisdom and of 
their folly; of their reliance and of their unbelief. We 
can easily imagine the blessedness of this meeting ; the 
honest greetings with which every new comer was wel- 
comed by those who had chanced to arrive before him. 
We seem to see Christ listening with affectionate earnest- 
ness to the recital of their adventures ; and interposing 
from time to time a word of encouragement or of caution, 
as the character and narrative of each might demand. 



§ 3. Christ's teaching. 191 

The heart of each was unveiled, and the words spoken 
were eminently in season. The fatigues of their journey 
were none of them remembered, as each received from the 
Saviour the smile of His approval. That was truly a 
joyful meeting ; and of all that company not one has for- 
gotten the day, nor will ever forget it 

58. Christ saw, however, that His disciples needed fur- 
ther counsel. By doing His will they were They retire to 
prepared for richer communications, and they ^ ^^'^^^^ ^^^^^' 
nad committed errors which needed correction. Sur- 
rounded as they were, moreover, by the crowds, they found 
rest and retirement equally impossible; ^^ there were many 
coming and going, and they had no leisure, no, not so 
much as to eat bread." (Mark vi. 31.) ^' Come ye," said 
He, '* yourselves into a desert place, and rest awhile." 

The religion of Christ requires retirement, as certainly 
as it requires publicity. The disciples had for some time 
been living before the eyes of men, and they needed com- 
munion with one another and with their Lord. For some 
weeks they had traveled on foot under a tropical sun, rea- 
soning with unbelievers and instructing the ignorant, obe- 
dient to every call of weakness and poverty ; and now they 
needed rest. His rule is ever consistent with benevolence ; 
He cares for the benefactor as well as for the recipient. 
*'He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust." 

Partly to meet these necessities, and partly, perhaps, to 
be out of the jurisdiction of Herod, whose anxious curiosity 
concerning Him might have interfered with our Lord's 
plans. He and His disciples cross the lake and enter the 
desert, ^. e., the thinly peopled country of Bethsaida. Here, 
in the cool and retired neighborhood of the lake, He began 
to instruct them, and without interruption to make known 
to them the mysteries of His kingdom. It was a season 
such as our Lord seldom enjoyed ; and it must have been 
delightful to all who witnessed and shared His love. 



192 CHAPTER IT. 

59. Soon, however, the scene was changed. The mul- 
visited by the titudc from Capemaum, making a hasty journey 
crowds. round the north end of the lake, discover the 

place of His retreat ; an immense crowd approaches, and 
the little band is surrounded by them. Some of these 
suitors present most importunate claims; healing and 
strength are sought by most for themselves or for their 
friends ; and every one, believing his own claim to be most 
urgent, presses forward with anxious importunity. 

The interruption could not fail to be unwelcome. The 
apostles needed rest ; they required further instruction, and 
such opportunities of intercourse with Christ were exceed- 
ingly rare. But what did they do ; rebuke and dismiss 
the multitudes ? Not so. The providence of God had sent 
them, and that same providence forbade our Lord to send 
them away unblessed. He at once broke up the conference 
with His disciples, and addressed Himself to the work 
before Him. His instructions were doubtless of great 
value ; but it may be questioned whether even they were 
more important than the example of humility, kindness, 
and compassion, which He here exhibited. 

His presence awed and stilled the crowd. He views 
^ , . , , them as '' sheep scattered without a shepherd.'? 

A day devoted ^ ^ 

to teaching (Matt. ix. 36 1 Lukc ix. 11.) He seeks at 

and healing. ^ 

once to relieve and instruct them ; speaking to 
them of the kingdom of God, and healing those that had 
need of healing. 

The greater part of a long summer's day had been em- 
ployed in this double work. Now the shades of evening 
The people ^^^ gathering around the multitude, who have 
need bread. nothing to eat. To send them away fasting 
would be inhuman, for most of them had come from far, 
and many of them were women and children, who could 
not perform their journey homeward without previous re- 



§ 3. Christ's teaching. 193 

fresliment. Even Philip, moreover, who was a native of 
that district, knew not where it was possible to buy bread 
for them, had the money to pay for it been at hand. The 
crowds, therefore, were thrown upon the bounty of our 
Lord. He had not led them into the wilderness ; they 
came to Him of themselves, to hear His words, and be 
healed of their infirmities ; he could not send them away, 
however, ^'lest they should faint by the way.'' (Matt. xv. 
32.) Nothing remained to be done, therefore, but to put 
forth Divine power. 

60. The little basket of provisions in the hands of the 
disciples seems barely enough for themselves, ^he miracle of 
It consists of only five loaves and two small ^^"^ loavos. 
fishes ; but with God's blessing and the Saviour's power it 
is enough for all. The large mass of human beings, 
amounting now to five thousand, besides women and chil- 
dren, are arranged in groups of orderly guests all seated 
on the grass. Silence is obtained ; the blessing of God is 
implored upon the scanty meal ; and immediately He begins 
to break the loaves and the fishes. He distributes them to 
His disciples, and His disciples distribute them to the mul- 
titude. He continues to break and distribute ; basket after 
basket is filled and emptied ; and at last the baskets are 
returned full, and it is announced that the wants of the 
multitude are supplied. The miracle then ceases, and the 
miraculous provision of food is at an end. (Mark v. 25-44.) 

Everything here is instructive. To have led the crowds 
into this position without providing for them, 

^ X o 7 Lessons. 

would have been presumption ; to sustain them 
when there, was unmingled mercy. 

He began to break and distribute in faith the meal which 
had been provided only for Himself and His disciples ; the 
supply increased as it was required, and it ceased not until 
all that had been prayed for was accomplished. 

n 



194 CHAPTER IV. 

And these were the acts of a single day. Private kind 
These the acts ^^^^ ^^^ instruction, the cure of disease, pub- 
of a single day. ||^ teaching, and the relief of the wants of 
famishing crowds, filled up the day. Such were the occu- 
pations of the Son of God.* 

The impressions these labors produced upon the multi- 
tude v/ere deep and general, though alas ! not 
of the holiest kind. It was concluded that ITe 
must be their deliverer ; and many of the people were dis- 
posed to employ all the means in their power to induce 
Him to assume those royal honors which He had shown 
that He could so easily maintain. 

61. Aware of this feeling, our Lord first sent away His 
The crowd dis- disciplcs ; and the multitude, supposing that 
missed. Christ must remain in the desert till the morn- 
ing, and that they would find Him there, quietly dispersed ; 
our Lord retiring, after they left Him, to spend the greater 
part of the night in communion with God. 

The night itself was an important and instructive one ; 
abounding too in evidences of the Saviour's kindness and 
power. (Matt, xiv.) 

Early in the morning the people collected to carry their 
purpose into effect, and began to seek for Jesus ; He was 
nowhere, however, to be found. They therefore crossed 
over the lake in some boats that had arrived that morning 
from Tiberias, and entered Capernaum, where they found 
Him in the synagogue teaching the people. 

62. And now comes the decisive disclosure of our Sa- 

viour's character. The people had expected a 
naum. His dis- temporal king. Christ's power had seemed to 

course there. . , ^^. , ,^ . Tt*- • i i 

point Him out as the coming Messiah, and 
they appear to hail and crown Him. But the higher their 
hopes the greater their disappointment, and ultimately the 

^^ See Br. Wayland's Sermon on " a Day in the life of Jesus of Naza- 
reth," from which many of these thoughts are taken. 



i 



§ 3. Christ's teaching. 195 

greater their rage, when He offered them something en- 
tirely different from what they sought. Carnal, earthly 
enthusiasm easily passes over to opposition, and Christ 
was about to feel the truth of this rule. ''Master," said 
they, ''when earnest thou hither?" (John vi. 25-21; 35, 
51.) Their question, which sprung probably from idle 
curiosity, which must say something, and hoped, perhaps, 
to hear how He had come, bur Lord answered only with a 
rebuke: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye seek me not 
because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the 
loaves and were filled. Labor not for the meat that pe- 
risheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting- 
life ; and which the Son of man shall give unto you, for 
him hath the Father, God, sealed." " Not conviction, but 
self-interest ; not a spiritual kingdom, but secular bless- 
ing—' the meat that perisheth' is the object of your pur- 
suit. The meat which, imperishable in its nature, supports 
an immortal life, is what I have come to reveal ; and that 
meat I give ; and that meat," he adds, " I am." 

By what works of Divine appointment (they answer) 
may we obtain this blessing — this meat, and the eternal 
life which you profess to impart ? " Credit my testimony, 
believe on me," is His reply, " and the gift shall be yours. 
With this faith everything is bestowed ; pardon and holi- 
ness, and a blessedness such as your largest thoughts have 
never conceived." 

This answer suggests other questions. "You profess to 
be the greater prophet of whom Moses wrote. What sign 
showest thou ? Give us not human food, but heavenly, 
such at least as Moses gave ; nay more, let it be angels' 
food, celestial manna, and so fulfill our expectations of 
millennial bliss." " That celestial bread," our Lord replies, 
" is Myself; heavenly bread Moses did not give, but I give 
it. I give it for the life of the world. He that cometh 
to Me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on Me 



196 CHAPTER IV, 

shall never thirst. Receive Me as Redeemer, Sanctifier, 
King, and All, and your happiness shall be complete.'^ 

This effort to awaken the desire of the Jews for the 
bread that Christ came to supply failed ; they scrupled 
about His meaning, and murmured at His sayings. He 
did not, therefore, reason with them on their scruples, but 
points out the source of them ; the dispositions of their 
hearts and minds. Of these it was necessary that they 
should be rid, before they could receive His divine mani- 
festation. ^^ Murmur not among yourselves ; no man can 
come unto me, except the Father draw him.'' (John vi. 
43, 44.) Seek within you, and not without you, the cause 
of your surprise. It lies here, that you have no sense of 
spiritual need, and no sense therefore of the value of the 
provision I have made. This lesson God teaches, as your 
own prophets have foretold. Not, however, that any man 
can know and be united to God but through the Son ; for He 
only hath seen the Father, and He only hath revealed Him. 

The rejection of Christ is ever the expression and result 
The general ^^ unsanctificd natural feeling. The salvation 
truth. Q^ Christ is too spiritual for the unrenewed ; 

too humbling for the proud ; too holy for the sinful ; too 
heavenly for the sensual and earthly. The influence of 
the Spirit, and the cogency of the truth understood and 
believed, are required to induce men to come to Christ, 
and these are from above. Man's ruin, therefore, belongs 
to himself ; his salvation to God. The first is the fruit of 
our corruption and depravity ; the second originates with 
the Father, is effected by the Son, and is received through 
the Spirit. We have ruined ourselves, and in God only 
is our help to be found. 

These great truths our Lord puts in^o other forms, and 
Kemarkabie Tcpcats them. Hc givcs Himsclf, He tells 
p%e"c^^'itr them, '^as the bread of heaven;" He gives 
meaning. cc jjig flgsh," His body, OT life, to obtain hap- 



§ 3. Christ's teaching. 197 

piness. ^' This," adds He, '' is the bread I give. It is 
by this I secure for them that believe everlasting life." 
^'Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh, 
and drink the blood of the Son of Man, ye have no life in 
you." His ^' flesh and blood" is clearly a phrase equiva- 
lent to his sufferings and death ; not separated from his 
earthly existence, and teaching, and spirit, but involving 
them all. He, the bread — His flesh and blood, our life, 
exhausts the whole truth ; and these expressions embody, 
though in dark and figurative phraseology, the sublimest 
truths. All figures apart, Christ himself as our sacrifice — 
Christ himself as the substance of all blessings, the staff 
of our strength, the support of our life — must be believed 
and trusted. He must be in us, and we in Him, in order 
that we may be saved. As the Father is the life-giving 
Father, so I, adds He, am the life-giving bread : ^'he that 
eateth Me shall live." 

63. Throughout the chapter these figures ar^ inter- 
changed, and literal interpretations are added a hard saymo-. 
Most of His hearers, however, failed to under- ^^^ rejected. 
stand how His words explained and illustrated each other. 
Adhering to the outward and material sense, they seized 
upon the expressions which were most striking ; hesitated, 
from the low position of the teacher, to give them their 
deepest meaning; and found in the whole hard sayings 
which they could not bear ; comparatively/ difficultj but 
superlatively distasteful. Jesus, moreover, knowing in 
Himself that His disciples also (for not a word had been 
dpoken by them) murmured, said unto them: ^'Doth this 
offend you ? What if ye shall see the Son ascend up 
whither He was before ? (John vi. 61, 62.) All your 
hopes of an earthly kingdom must then vanish, and the 
idea of eating my flesh in a literal sense become perfectly 
prroundless. Can ye not perceive that it is a spiritual truth 
I am teaching ; and it is to spiritual influences, and doc- 
It* 



198 CHAPTER IV. 

trines, and blessings I refer ; but in that spirit ye are defi- 
cient, and, as I said before, your carnal sense is the cause 
of your misunderstanding and unbelief." (ver. 65.) 

64. Then followed a sifting of His disciples. ^Trom 
Many of the ^^^^ ^^^® many wcut back, and walked no 
disciples leave. ^^^^ ^j^]^ Him.'' They were not prepared 

for a spiritual kingdom ; and Christ rather favored than 
discouraged their going. (John vi. 66-69.) To the twelve 
he said, ''Will ye also go?'' And Peter, speaking, as 
usual, for the rest, bore testimony to his experience of the 
Peter's conies- blcsscdness of his fellowship with Christ : 
'^°"- '' Lord, to whom shall we go ? Thou hast the 

words of eternal life;" therefore, he adds, ''We believe 
that Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." 

65. In His reply to this confession, Christ warned them 
The traitor in- ^^^^ there was ouc who did not share their 
dxated. convictiou. He had chosen them and called 
them ; but one of them had the heart of a foe. Even the 
traitor was not unwarned ; these words might have led to 
repentance and pardon — failing this result, they must have 
deepened his enmity. Probably it may have been from this 
very conversation (which embodied statements quite incon- 
sistent with the idea of a temporal kingdom) that Judas 
gathered fresh motives for the betrayal of Christ ; and if so, 
it is an instance of spiritual truth becoming, as it often 
does, life to them that are saved, and death to them that 
perish. 

QQ. The revelation of Christ that is most spiritual, is 
G-nerai les- ^^^^ ^^^^ humbliug. Some reject Him, as did 
'■^'''^- His countrymen at Nazareth, because of the 

lowliness of His guise and position ; others, as here, for 
the humbling depth of his doctrine, and the spirituality of 
His reign. Those who, like Peter, acknowledge the com- 
pleteness of their dependence on Christ, are the first to 



§ 3. Christ's TEACHiNa. 199 

ascribe to Him His true dignity : ^' Thou givest eternal 
life ; Thou, therefore, art the Son of the living God." 

61. The miracle of the loaves evidently suggested to our 
Lord the phraseology of His discourse to the 
people at Capernaum ; and the bread which cies au signm. 
He had broken was a symbol of the bread of 
life He was about to supply. The eating, the division into 
companies, the ministration of the disciples, and the subse- 
quent care of the fragments, may all be regarded as more 
or less symbolical of the order and duties of the church 
His miracles are thus not only evidences — they are lessons. 
As He was Himself the Word of God, so all the acts of 
this Word are words. They are not pictures merely, which 
we are to examine and admire ; they are words which we 
are to understand ; for they have each, if we are to study 
them, their own, and often the deepest meaning. 

68. Nine of the miracles recorded in the Gospels were 
wrought in nature. The water He made wine ; 

_ Enumerated 

the tempest He stilled ; the sea He made as and classified, 
solid as earth, and walked upon it ; twice He 
multiplied the bread, till now five thousand, and then four 
thousand were filled ; twice He found in the miraculous 
draughts of fishes emblems of the work and progress of 
His kingdom ; once the fish supplied Him, through Peter, 
with proof of His sonship ; and once the barren fig-tree was 
blasted and withered as an emblem of the fate of the city 
near which He stood. 

The remainder of the miracles were all wrought in a 
nobler field. Twice He healed persons afilicted 

On man. 

with leprosy ; four times He opened the eyes 
of the blind ; thrice He cast out devils ; thrice He raised 
the dead ; and many times besides He healed all manner of 
diseases. These are His recorded miracles — many others 
of the same kind He did in all parts of Judea, '' which are 
not written" in these books. 



200 CHAPTER IV. 

69. All these miracles illustrate the blessings Christ 
came to introduce ; all, the necessity of power 
in these mira- and of faith ; and each miracle has, besides, 
lessons of its own. 

How beautifully does His power over nature illustrate 
His providence. '^All things are put under His feet.'' 
He was about to send forth His disciples into a cold perse- 
cuting world, but He bids them distrust neither His in- 
clination nor His ability to help them. '' fear the Lord, 
ye His saints ; for there is no want to them that fear him.'' 
(Ps. xxxiv. 9.) Nature and providence are His ; He is 
Head over them all for the church. 

How instructive when the lepers are cleansed ; the blind 
eyes opened ; the possessed restored to their right mind ; 
the dead raised ! Each act an emblem of the spiritual 
blessings which Christ came to bestow ; and each, if ex- 
amined in detail, illustrative of the principles on which He 
still acts in imparting His gifts. 

Man and God are alike revealed in these portions of the 
sacred page. ^ 

TO. As the miracles of Christ are illustrative of His 
character and work, so are His acts and th-e 

All the acts of ' 

Christ part of circumstanccs of His life. Every thinff He 

His reTelation. "^ ^ 

did and suffered was instructive ; revealing 
sometimes the nature of His work, and sometimes the 
character to which Christians are to be conformed. 

11. Prophets, for example, had described Him as gentle 
Illustrated in ^^^^ compassiouatc. ^' He shall not cry, nor 
Ills gentleness. YHi up, uor causc His voicc to be heard in the 
street; ^^ a bruised reed shall He not break, and the 
smoking flax shall He not quench." (Is. xlii. 2, 3.) ''He 
shall feed His flock like a shepherd; so shall He gather 
the lambs in His arms, and carry them in His bosom." 

And turning to His life, how does He sustain this dis- 
tinction ? His emblem was the lamb ; the Holy Ghost 



§ 3. Christ's teaching. 201 

descends upon Him as a dove descends ; angels speak of 
the truth He reveals, as ^' peace on earth, and good will to 
men." (Luke ii. 14.) 

How does He employ the power with which God en- 
dowed Him ? Once, it is true. He cursed the barren fig- 
tree, and it withered away ; but it was barren and unowned. 
The curse, moreover, was intended to be an instructive and 
solemn warning. It is true also, that He destroyed the 
herd of swine belonging to the Gadarenes ; but the miracle 
was in rebuke of the worldliness it elicited, and was in- 
tended, moreover, as an evidence of the reality of the 
power He had dispossessed. All His other miracles were 
entirely and distinctly acts of love. 

And what utterances has He given ? It is true that He 
denounced the Scribes and Pharisees ; and against them 
His voice was heard. But then they were hypocrites, and 
He came to teach truth as well as mercy. His gentleness 
was never intended as a renunciation of wisdom or of 
righteousness; and to disabuse the minds of the people 
concerning their false guides, was clearly part of his office. 
In relation to others, however, how lowly was His wiiole 
deportment ; how easy of access ; how tender in invita- 
tion ; how mild in rebuke ; how ready to suggest excuse 
when the offender himself had none. How did He address 
the people ? '' Come unto me all ye that labor and are 
heavy laden, and I will give you rest." (Matt. xi. 28.) 
How did He receive children ? ^' Suffer them," said He to 
His disciples, to '' come unto me, and forbid them not" . . . 
''and He took them up in His arms and blessed them." 
(Luke xviii. 16.) At the grave of Lazarus '' Jesus wept." 
(John xi. 35.) His mother He commended to the care of 
His disciples. How gentle in all His dealings with His 
apostles ; bearing with their mistakes, forgiving their infir- 
mities, and loving them, in spite of repeated provocations, 
even unto the end. How pitiful towards His enemies, 



202 CHAPTER lY. 

weeping over the city whose inhabitants were about to 
imbrue their hands in His blood ; healing the ear of the 
servant of His bitterest foe ; not destroying those who came 
to apprehend Him, but surrendering himself quietly, ar- 
ranging only for the escape of His followers. On the cross 
He prayed for His murderers, and afterwards bade His 
disciples proclaim to them first the Gospel of peace. 

He is the same still — He relieves, and teaches, and 
chastens, and pities, and employs us with the same conde- 
scension. It becomes us, therefore, to dismiss all slavish 
dread ; to trast Him, to admire Him, to follow and copy 
Him, till by studying His character we are ^^ changed from 
glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord." (2 Cor. 
iii. 18.) 

12. Again, He commanded His disciples to practise 
Illustrated in self-dculal ; and Himself illustrated, in every ; 
His poverty, circumstancc of his condition, the virtue He 
thus enjoined. He has told us, " the Son of Man hath not 
where to lay his head." During his private life, indeed, 
He lived with Joseph and Mary at Nazareth ; and after 
He had entered upon His ministry. He had some friends 
who, like Martha, afforded Him the accommodation of 
their dwellings ; but these advantages were occasional, and 
of the nature of hospitality. He never possessed an apart- 
ment He could call His own. He was born in another 
man's house. Widows ministered to him of their substance. 
He partook of the last Passover in another man's chamber. 
At last He was buried in another man's grave. And He 
felt this condition the more painful from the dignity He 
had left. It was part of his humiliation to bear it. Yet 
He never repented of His engagement. It was ever His 
feeling : *^ Lo, I come — / delight to do thy will, O God." 
(Ps. xl. t, 8.) As His agony drew nearer. He even longed 
for it : ^' I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how 
am I straitened till it be accomplished." (Luke xii. 50.) 



§' 3. Christ's character. 203 

And does not this poverty fit Him for His position ? 
How it illustrates His grace ! How cheering ^vhat taught 
to the poor ! It is enough that the servant be ^^' ^^^' ^^'^• 
as his Master, and the disciple as his Lord. How sugges- 
tive of the test of true greatness. Such greatness is per- 
sonal, and not circumstantial ; it is in the character, and 
not in the condition. How humbling to our nature 1 The 
people allowed Him to suffer, and so proved their real 
character. It was a reproach to the Corinthians, that Paul, 
while preaching and working miracles among them, had to 
labor day and night for his support. How much greater 
the reproach that this was Christ's condition ! Surely (our 
first feeling is) men will ^' reverence the Son.' At His 
coming nobles and princes will welcome Him to their 
homes ; and they will deem themselves amply repaid by 
His condescension in accepting their invitations. But He 
was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the 
world knew him not. He came unto His own, and His 
own received Him not. (John i. 10, 11.) The Lord of 
all, and the acquaintance of grief — the image of the Invi- 
sible God, and yet *^the despised and rejected of men;" 
And is human nature changed ? How do we receive His 
Gospel — the members of Christ — the poor ? The rule still 
holds: ^'He that receiveth you, receiveth me." It may 
still form the ground of our own sentence : *' Inasmuch as 
ye did it not unto the least of these my brethren, ye did it 
not unto me." — Depart. (Matt. xxv. 45.) 

13. The miracles and parables, the sayings and acts, 
and the sufferings of our Lord, therefore, are j^^ Christ's 
all instructive, and reveal some truth connected ^^^g STs^ru?^' 
either with God, or with ourselves, or with *^^®- 
both. 



204 chapter iv. 

Sect. 4. Christ's further Disclosures in Galilee and 

IN JUD^A. 

14. Christ's desire for further private intercourse with 
Resolves to ^^^ disciplcs, and the continued presence of 
Yisit Galilee. Hcrod in Galilee, induced our Lord to remove 
from the neighborhood of Capernaum. He resolved to 
visit the north of Galilee, and thither He now proceeded 
with His disciples- 

75. Before leaving Capernaum, however, He had a long 
conversation with Scribes and Pharisees from 

Conversation « ,. . 

with the Jerusalem on the use of tradition, and espe- 

Scribes. , , ,. . 

cially on the importance oi inward religion, as 
compared with ceremonial purity (Mark vii. 1-23) ; Christ 
teaching, in opposition to the common doctrine of the 
Pharisees, that the things which are within are those that 
defile, and that for evil thoughts, and unholy desires (rather 
than for neglect of ceremonial observances) men will be 
condemned. 

16. The first visit of our Lord is paid to the region of 
Visits Tyre and ^7^^ ^^^ Sidou ; and there the Syro-Phoeni- 
sidon. ^jg^^ woman pleaded with Christ for her daugh- 

ter (against even His own discouragements) and prevailed. 
*^ woman," said He, ^^ great is thy faith ; be it unto thee 
even as thou wilt." (Matt. xv. 28.) 

11. In the district of Decapolis the miracle of feeding 

a large multitude was repeated ; and a deaf 

and dumb man was healed. Again the Scribes 
seek a sign, and again the disciples of our Lord are warned 
against their temper and spirit. 

18. At Bethsaida a blind man received his sight, and 

the common admonition was added — that he 

Bethsaida 

should tell no man what Jesus had done. 
And here, being in the neighborhood of Caesarea Phi- 
lippi, our Lord found himself once more alone with His 



§ 4. DISCLOSURES IN GALILEE AND JUDJEA. 205 

disciples, and continued the conversation which He had 
broken off a little time before. He resumed it (in the 
midst of a season of solemn prayer) by asking the opinions 
generally prevalent concerning himself. Peter renewed 
the confession he had made on a previous occasion ; and in 
contrast with those who said that Jesus was only a pro- 
phet, he affirmed: ''Thou art the Christ, the Son of the 
living God." (Matt. xvi. 16, 11.) 

79. Thus had Peter twice borne testimony to our Lord : 
first, in opposition to those whom Christ's spi- peter's second 
ritual teaching had estranged ; and now, in confession. 
opposition to those who entertained inferior views of His 
person. His answer our Lord expressly ascribes to no 
human teaching, but directly to God : '^ Flesh and blood 
hath not revealed this unto thee, but my Father, who is in 
heaven." 

80. On receiving this confession of Peter, in relation 
to the truth which forms the unchangeable basis Christ's pro- 
of the kingdom of God, Christ called him by '^^'''^• 

the name which, in the exercise of a prophetic spirit, he 
had already assigned him : '' Thou art Peter, the man of 
rock ; and on thee, as a steadfast witness in my name, I 
will build my church ; a church that is to remain imperish- 
able, triumphant over both hell and death." (Matt. xvi. 18.) 
In fulfillment of this promise, we find that the labors of 
Peter formed the foundation — that is, the com- ^ ^ 

' Its fuimiment. 

mencement of the spiritual temple which Christ 

came to found — both Jews and Gentiles having been first 

called and converted under his ministry. (Acts ii. and x.)* 

* It is with reluctance we dififer from our excellent author ; but in this 
iastance, as in a few before, we must express our decided dissent from 
his interpretation of this import&,nt passage. The facts here mentioned 
respecting Peter's labors may be fully admitted, without regarding them 
as at all concerned in the fulfillment of this particular promise. 

To us it appears cleaF, from the preceding context, that Peter spoke 
here simjjly as a true diacijjle, in the name of the rest, (as he did in John 

18 



206 CHAPTER IV. 

81. Christ then adds, '^ and I will give thee the keys of 
A second pro- ^^^ kingdom of heaven ; whatsoever thou shalt 
^^^^' bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and 

whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in 
heaven ;" a promise which was afterwards extended to all 

vi. 68, 69,) in reply to a question of our Lord as to the nature of their com- 
mon faith in Him. That faith our Lord approves as divine in its origin, 
and true in its object; and therefore worthy of being recognized as the 
essential characteristic of his disciples in all ages. By means of this 
faith He wiU build His Church ; for this alone unites the soul to Him, the 
true foundation, and makes it partaker of His life, stability, and useful- 
ness. So Peter himself, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, understood and 
clearly expounds his Master. *^ Unto whom coming, as unto a living 
stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, ye 
also, as living stones, are built up, a spiritual house.'* (1 Pet. ii. 4, 5.) 
No merely human authority can set aside this inspired interpretation, 
sustained, as it is, by the concurrent voice of all the Apostles and Pro- 
phets. (Ps. cxviii. 22; Isa. xxviii. 16; Acts iv. 11, 12; Rom. ix. 33; 
1 Cor. iii. 11; Ephes. ii. 20-22; 1 Peter ii. 6-8.) || 

It follows, " that the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven** are given to 
Peter, not as the Primate of the Church (as Rome contends), nor as an 
Apostle or Preacher of the Gospel (as most Protestants, with our author, 
suppose) ; but as the representative of all true believers in Christ, building 
on Him as the true foundation. These constitute the Christian Church 
in all ages, against which the gates of Hell shall not prevail. The pro- 
fession of this faith in the appointed mode makes them members of the 
Visible Church — which is only the aggregate of all particular local 
^' churches of the saints.** The power of the Keys, or Church Power in 
general, is here given by Christ alike, and equally, to the individual be- 
lievers of whom they are composed, to be exercised under His laws in 
their united capacity. This interpretation is so impregnably fortified by 
the repetition of the same term in Matt, xviii. 18, in immediate connec- 
tion with the action of particular churches, that we can only wonder at 
the pertinacity with which a different opinion is held. 

Hence it is impossible for us to agree in the opinion of our author in 
paragraphs 80-82 ; much less in the Note which aims to support it. To 
suppose our Lord would say what he does in Matt, xviii. 15-20, in reference 
to a Jewish synagogue, is, in our judgment, opposed to all sound 
exegesis, all facts, all analogies ; not to mention that near this time all 
Christians were excluded from the Jewish synagogues. (John ix. 22,) 
—J. N. B. 



i 



§ 4. DISCLOSURES IN GALILEE AND JUD.EA. 20T 

the twelve (John xx. 23), and implied that the laws and 
truths of the kina-dom of Christ were to be _ 

^ Its meanmg 

revealed and enforced in the personal ministry and fuimi- 

*- " ment. 

of his apostles, and then to be committed by 
them in a permanent written form to the custody of his 
church. (2 Cor. ii. 15; Matt. x. 13.) This kingdom, 
however, the disciples did not yet understand ; and there- 
fore they are strictly forbidden to proclaim Christ's dig- 
nity and office — a caution which the result of the very first 
subsequent disclosure of our Lord proves not to be un- 
needed. 

82. Here, it will be observed, the word '' church" occurs 
for the first time in the Gospel; nor do we 

. _ . . . .1 T . T TWT . The church. 

meet with it again m the Inspired JNarrative, 
in the same sense, till we come to the Acts of the Apos- 
tles.* 

83. We have already seen that Christ frequently spoke 
of himself in mysterious terms. He had told 

_-_._ _ _-. iT/%T T-r Christ's king- 

^Nicodemus that He was to be lifted up; He dom founded 
had assured the multitude that unless they ate 
His flesh, and drank His blood, they could not live ; but 
the truth involved in these declarations had not been dis- 
tinctly revealed, and the declarations themselves, therefore, 
were in a great measure incomprehensible. '* From this 
time^'^^ however, ^'He began to show unto His disciples 
how He must go to Jerusalem, suffer many things, and be 
killed, and after three days rise again ;" and 'Hhis saying 
He spake even openly. '^ (Mark viii. 32.) 

* Twice it is found afterwards in Matthew : " Go tell it to the church," 
and " if he hear not the church ;" but in this passage, probably, the 
reference is rather to the ecclesiastical assemblies of the Jews. The 
principle embodied in the command is universally applicable ; but it is 
doubtful whether there was any intention upon the part of our Lord to 
bring out there the peculiar ideas of the Church of Christ. [But see the 
preceding Editorial Note. — J. N, B.] 



208 CHAPTER IV. 

84. This idea, that His kingdom was to be established 
Peter's opinion through Suffering, His apostles could not ad- 
of this truth. ^^^^ Petcr, therefore, took Him aside and 
began to rebuke Him, saying, '' Be it far from thee, Lord ;'^ 
(Matt. XV] . 22, 23;) an exclamation inspired, doubtless, by 
love — but by love of an earthly origin. As Christ had 
commended Peter for a confession which flesh and blood 
had not revealed unto him, so now He reproves him for 
utterances which sprung from a feeling entirely selfish. 
. 85. ^' Get thee behind me, Satan," says our Lord, in 
language of stronger indignation than any he 
had yet used in addressing His followers. He 
then turned to His disciples, and gave them a lesson the 
very opposite of what Peter had sought to enforce, 
reminding them that life itself is to be held in subordina- 
tion to the interests of the kingdom of God. ^' Be ready,'' 
his language implies, ^' to sacrifice everything on its behalf, 
and remember that this precept is of present importance, 
for ^ there are some standing here who shall not taste death 
till they see the kingdom of God coming with power ;"' an 
expression which the disciples did not understand, but 
which became plain in the events of Providence, and had 
its fulfillment in the days of Pentecost. 

86. Six days after this conversation our Lord took Peter, 
The transfigu- Jamcs, and John, up into a mountain to pray, 
[ng follow" d""^' and as he prayed, the fashion of his counte- 
i)y glory. nance was altered, ^^ and his raiment became 

white and glistening.'' (Luke ix. 29.) The earth had dis- 
owned her King ; His last words with His disciples had 
been of suffering ; now heaven owns Him, and the suffer- 
ing is seen to be followed by glory. The representatives 
of the ancient law and prophets appear, and talk with Him 
of the issues of His approaching decease ; and in the end 
they both disappear, while Christ is revealed as the King 
whom all nations are henceforth to obey (v. 31). 



I 
i 



§ 4. DISCLOSURES IN GALILEE AND JUDiEA. 209 

81. This act seems doubly significant. Coming after 
the declaration of His sufferins;, it was proba- 

^ ^ Its significance 

bly intended as a solemn installation of our to the disci- 
pies. 
Lord before His three chosen disciples, adapted 

to confirm them in their previous confession, and to reveal 

more clearly his dignity. He is here formally set forth as 

the King of the Church, and His word is declared to be 

her law. (Matt. xvii. 5.) 

Nor was the fact without significance to our Lord him- 
self. The transfiguration takes its place with 
His baptism and the temptation, as essential 
to His complete preparation for his final conflict. It 
cheered and sustained Him. 

The whole transaction may also be regarded as a repre- 
sentative prefiguration to us of the kingdom of God, in 
which Christ's chosen disciples shall witness and share His 
glory ; and all of every dispensation make the Divine 
counsel in the work of redemption the great theme of their 
thoughts — a theme that shall fill them with admiration and 
praise. 

These three disciples, it may be noticed, witnessed and 
shared His glory, as still later they beheld his sorrow. 
(Matt. xxvi. 3T.) 

88. The object of the mission of the apostles Christ had 
already explained, and the spirit of self-denial 

1 . 1 1 . . , T 1 The spirit 

m which that mission was to be undertaken, which becomes 
Additional lessons are now imparted of the 
niost instructive kind. 

A man, whose son was possessed by an evil spirit, had 
appealed to the disciples to heal him — but they had 
failed. From this failure the Scribes took occasion to 
dispute the miracles and authority of their Master ; and, 
during the dispute, Christ suddenly appeared among the 
crowd, rebuked the multitude, gently chided the unbe- 

18* 



210 CHAPTER IV. 

lief of the father, and then healed his son. (Mark. ix. 
14.) 

This defective power of the disciples Christ afterwards 
Great faith explained, ascribing it to the deficiency of 
needed. ^^gj^. fg^|||^ . ^^^^ ^j^^ deficiency of their faith to 

the want of that collectedness and devotion which are ex- 
pressed by fasting and prayer : the whole lesson being 
intended to impress on their minds that they were not yet 
fully prepared for the duties of their ministry — duties 
which required, in an eminent degree, self-renunciation and 
trust. 

Another lesson was taught, no less impressively, in 
Teaches by an another form. Though Christ had repeatedly 
tyof acSmiike discouragcd the earthly conceptions which His 
disposition. disciplcs had formed of His reign, their hopes 
in this respect were not yet eradicated. As an evidence of 
such expectations, tinged as they often were with some- 
thing even worse than erroneous thoughts, the disciples dis- 
puted, on their way back to Capernaum, who was most 
active in their Master's service, and who should, therefore, 
have the first place in His kingdom. (Mark ix. 33-3 Y.) 
When they reached the town, Christ asked them on what 
subject they had disputed by the way, intending that the 
very shame of answering His question should be a suffi- 
cient rebuke. Nor did he say more ; but proceeded, by a 
very significant act, to show them the impropriety of their 
contention, and the spirit which they must cherish under 
His authority : '* He is greatest," said He in effect, ''who 
is most childlike and unassuming ; nor is it, in religious 
acts, the action itself which gives worth, but the motive 
and spirit of the actor;" ''to receive, therefore, a little 
child in my name, is to receive even me." A principle 
that destroys all pride, for it measures acts by their mo- 
tives, and motives by their humility. 



§ 3. DISCLOSURES IN GALILEE AND JUD^A. 211 

On a later occasion, when a similar question was dis- 
cussed, Christ laid down the rule that those are 

Activity and 

greatest in His kingdom, who are most labori- humility tests 

*■ of greatness. 

ous and humble : ^^ He that is greatest among 
you, let him be your servant." (Matt, xxiii. 11.) 

The principle that things are to be estimated by the 
motive in which they are done, suggests a question to 
John^s mind which brings out another lesson. ^' We saw 
men," said he, ^' casting out devils in thy name, and we 
forbad them, for they followed not us :" but ^, ^ , . 

^ J 'No effort m 

Christ says, ^'Forbid them not: for no man Christ's name 

'' ' to be con- 

that does miracles in my name, can lis-htly demnedwith- 

•^ ' o J out reason. 

speak evil of me." (Mark ix. 38-40.) This 
act may have proceeded from inward o'pposition, and then 
the principle applies — he that is not with me is against me. 
But it may have proceeded from inward affinity^ and some 
measure of reverence which may lead to full discipleship ; 
and then — he that is not against us is on our part. At all 
events, forbid them not. Test acts by their motives, and 
so tested, there seems no reason why in this case they 
should be condemned. 

Another lesson He had to teach them. The disciples 
remembered the scenes of the transfiguration, xinhoiy zeai 
and the character of Christ had since appeared condemned, 
to them more glorious than before. In passing through a 
village of the Samaritans, the people had. formally rejected 
Him; and the disciples, reminded, probably, by what they 
had witnessed, or perhaps by the locality in which they 
ihen were, of the example of Elijah, asked permission to 
call down fire from heaven to destroy these despisers — a 
request that Christ immediately rebuked. '' The way of 
the Son of Man," said he, ^' is different ; through rejection, 
rather than through judgment. He is to pass to His glory ; 
He came not to destroy men's lives, but to The son of Man 
save them." '' And they went," it is added, '' to ^^^" ^^ '^''"- 



212 CHAPTER IV. 

another village.^' (Luke ix. 51.) Whether here is the 
greater, the patience or the zeal ; the unwearied diligence, 
or the inexhaustible endurance — we need not decide. 
Christ is equally perfect ; in meekness as our model, and 
in activity as our Redeemer. 

Mercy finally rejected, however, is followed ultimately 
but will finally ^J judgment; and, therefore, before leaving 
judge. ^]^|g (district. He began to upbraid those cities 

in which His mighty works were done, because they 
repented not. (Matt. xi. 20-24. His first advent was only 
to save ; His second will be both to save and to condemn. 

90. After again announcing His approaching decease, 
Finally leaves ^^^ giving instructions to His Apostles in 
Galilee. reference to the spirit which is to be cherished 
by all His followers, (Matt, xviii.,) He takes His final leave 
of Galilee, and goes up to Jerusalem. 

Samaria He takes by the way, sending seventy of His 
The seventy disciplcs iuto the various villages and towns 
sent out. q£ ^]^^^ district, to proclaim the approach ol 

His kingdom. 

91. It was now eighteen months since Christ had visited 

the capital : the interval he had employed in 

Goes up to Je- • /-. ti t • . . 

rusaiem pri- preachiug iH Ualilee, and in trammg the Apos- 

vatelVe 

ties for their work. Now, however. He re- 
solved again to visit it ; partly to confirm the impressions 
which His previous labors had produced, and partly to 
avoid the imputation that He feared to give evidence of 
His mission in the presence of the Sanhedrim. As it was 
His rule to ''deal prudently," He determined (though 
against the remonstrances of His family) to go up privately, 
and to appear suddenly in the city, before the Chief Priests 
had time to take measures for seizing His person. 

After His relatives, therefore, had left Galilee, He him- 
self set out for Jerusalem, and arrived about the middle of 
the feast ; the feast was that of Tabernacles, and the time, 



§ 4. DISCLOSURES IN GALILEE AND JUD^A. 213 

the month of October. In Jerusalem and its neighborhood 
He remained till the feast of Dedication, held in the mid- 
dle of the following December. 

92. Already great anxiety had been expressed in the 
city for His reappearance, and the most oppo- 
site opinions were held concerning Him. The at Jerusalem, 
charge of Sabbath breaking, which had been 
urged against Him eighteen months before, and since 
through Galilee by the Pharisees and their friends, was still 
fresh in the public mind, and Christ found it necessary 
again to explain His conduct. (John vii. 11-24. 

On hearing His defence, the people expressed great 
suf prise that one uneducated taught so well; ^'but my 
teaching, ^^ said He in explanation, '' is not mine, but his 
that sent me :" as you yourselves mi^ht also 

T '' >} ^ ^ Desire to learn 

know, had you the heart and the desire (di-keiv) essential to 

knowledge. 

to learn, (ver. lY.) 

This boldness still further surprises them ; and they ask 
whether, as the Scribes had not laid hands upon Him, they 
really knew that He was the Messiah ; but they themselves 
answer the question by affirming, that, as they know whence 
Jesus is. He cannot be the Christ, who is to reveal him- 
self suddenly and in His ^lory. (ver. 2^.) 

^, . p , . .,-,,. T Christ known 

Christ refutes their reasonmg, by telling them and not 
that they both know Him and know Him not ; 
real knowledge requiring obedience and love. 

The Pharisees then attempt to take Him, but Christ" 
warns them that, before long, they shall seek him and no^- 
find Him ; the Jews maliciously interpreting His words to 
imply that He was about to publish His Gospel to the 
Gentiles. (John vii. 34, 35.) 

Christ then announces Himself as the living water, and 
as the true light of the world ; foretells in mysterious terms 
His own death ; (John vii. 3T, 38 ;) affirms that the free- 
dom He comes to proclaim was not from the Roman yoke, 



214 CHAPTER IV. 

but from sin, and that truth was the great instrument of 
imparting it ; that in their hatred of truth they proved 
themselves to be no true children of Abraham, their 
boasted progenitor, but children of the devil. ^'Him," 
adds He, ^' whom Abraham longed for, ye seek to destroy." 

93. These announcements on the part of our Lord 
The feeling of elicited different expressions of feeling. Some 
the crowd. g^i(j ^1^^^ jjg ^^g ^ Galilean ; some that He 

was a Samaritan, and had a devil ; many believed, think- 
ing Him *'a good man,'' or ^' a prophet,'' or even ''the 
Christ ;" but at the close the crowds cried out : '' He hath 
a devil," and took stones to stone him. (John viii. 48 ; 
vii. 12-40 ; viii. 59.) 

94. During these popular discussions the Pharisees were 
Movements of ^^^ ^^^^' -^ftcr the failure of their officers to 
the Sanhedrim. ^^^^ Christ, the Sanhedrim met, and discussed 
what steps should be taken in reference to Him. Some 
thought that He had broken the law and was a blasphemer. 
Others (among whom Nicodemus was one) thought that 
He ought not to be condemned unheard ; and at length 
they seem to have resolved that, though no decisive judg- 
ment should be pronounced upon Himj it should be punish- 
able for any one apart from the authority of the Sanhe- 
drim, to acknowledge Him as the Messiah. (John vii. 52 ; 
ix. 22. 

95. They attempted in the meantime to entrap Him by 

the case of a woman taken in adultery. If He 

The woman 

taken in adui- had cxcuscd her, they would have appealed to 
His decision as evidence of His contempt for 
the law ; and if He had condemned her, her death would 
have made Him amenable to the civil power. (John viii. 
3-11.) His reply to their questions is as just as it is 
ingenious. The lesson to her accusers, and to the woman 
nerself, and Christ's defence of the law, are equally com- 
plete. 



§ 4. DISCOURSES IN GALILEE AND JUDiEA. 215 

96. As the cure of the impotent man, on the occasion of 
Christ's previous visit to Jerusalem, had pro- The blind man 
duced such results, our Lord now performs a ^®^^^<^' 
similar miracle, healing on the sabbath day a man born 
blind. He first corrects the interpretation which the dis- 
ciples were disposed to put upon the man's affliction, and 
then healed him ; first curing his physical blindness, and 
then giving him to understand His own character and 
truth. I must work (said our Lord in explanation of this 
miracle) while the time of my personal ministry lasts (" the 
day"), for the end of my labors Q' the night'') approaches, 
when no man can work ; while I am in the world, I am 
the light of the world. (John ix. 4, 5.) 

By the gradual progress of the cure our Lord taught 
important spiritual lessons. 

A great sensation was produced by this miracle ; and 
the Sanhedrim attempted to corrupt, or to alarm the blind 
man, to induce him to deny the reality of the miracle, or 
the true character of Him who had performed it. With 
all courtesy and firmness, however, he maintained the truth, 
stating the fact in the simplest terms, but in such a form 
as implied that he deemed Christ no common man. In the 
end they cast him out — the first decisive public act of the 
rulers against our Lord. 

9T. Our Lord afterwards lays hold of this history — the 
miracle and its results — as an instance of the 

-n- 1 • ti T I^essons taught 

two opposite tendencies oi His teaching. *' 1 by this his- 

tory. 

am come into this world," says He, '' that they 
who see not, might see, and that they who see might be 
made blind ;" a principle spiritually fulfilled in this case, 
and in all time. (John ix. 39.) Wheresoever the truth of 
Christ operates among men, the blind are made to see, and 
the seeing become blind ; the grace and the condemnation 
go hand in hand. 



216 CHAPTER IT. 

98. This treatment of the poor blind man, and the gene- 
Christ the good ^^^ conduct of the Pharisees, prepare the way 
shepherd. ^^^ ^^^ beautiful parable of the good shepherd. 
Christ is Himself set forth as the divinely-appointed leader 
of His people ; His voice harmonizes with the divine draw- 
ing within ; they know it, and admit Him, and he knows 
them and their wants ; and, as they need, supplies them all. 

Contrasted with Him is the hireling and the thief- — the 
Contrasted second Sacrificing to wholly selfish ends the in- 
hni'aMthl''" terests of the flock; and the first without 
thief. courage to risk much for their good. *' But I," 

says our Lord, ^' know my sheep, and am knovm of mine ; 
and Ilai/ down my life for the sheep."*^ (John x. 14-16.) 

With this view of His self-sacrifice before Him, His 
thoughts glance to that greater development of His king- 
dom which that sacrifice is to introduce. '' And other 
sheep I have which are not of this flock ;'^ souls ready for 
His truth among other nations. '^ Them also," he adds, 
'^ I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there 
shall be one flock and one shepherd." 

99. Slightly varying the picture, He tells them, more- 

over, that He is not only the shepherd, but the 

Christ the door. ' J r > 

door of the flock. By him men enter into the 
fold. Entering by Him men find safety^ ''they shall be 
saved;" liberty , ''they shall go in and out;" plenty, ''and 
they shall find pasture." Freedom, sufficiency, and salva- 
tion are combined in Christ ; and all are imparted to those 
who believe. 

100. To the worldly-minded hearers of our Lord these 

words conveyed no meanins;. Instead of inspi- 

AU deemed by . ,.-,,., 

the people ex- ratiou, they saw m them nothing but extrava- 
gance. " He hath a devil," said they, "and 
is mad." But others were irresistibly attracted to Him. 
They heard words which no other man could utter, and 
they ^diW works which no other man could do. On another 



§ 4. DISCLOSURES IN GALILEE AND JUD^A. 21 1 

occasion during this same visit, His words became yet 
more decided. (John x. 22-42.) 

101. New divisions arose; the life of Christ was every 
day endangered, and His ministry disturbed ; Christ retires 
He therefore left Jerusalem, and went with i^^^i^^^^a. 
His disciples into Perasa. 

102. During the two months Christ remained in the neigh- 
borhood of Jerusalem, He delivered the para- 
ble of the good Samaritan (Luke x.) ; visited 

Martha and Mary at Bethany ; a second time taught the 
disciples to pray, and received the report of the seventy, 
who were now returned from their mission into Samaria. 
(Luke X.)* Our Lord's remarks on receiving this report- 
are highly instructive. 

103. Christ's stay in Peraea was shortened by a message 
from the family at Bethany. With this family, Recalled to Be 
who resided within a mile and a half of Jeru- *^^^^- 
salem, Christ seems to have formed, during his protracted 
visit to the city, a close and affectionate intimacy ; and it 
is expressly said, '^ that Jesus loved them." The brother 
of the family was taken ill, and the sisters sent messengers 
into Persea (about two days' journey) to inform our Lord 
of their af&iction. Our Lord replied by informing their 
messenger that Lazarus should not be separated from his 
sisters by death; and having dismissed him, Christ remained 
for two days longer in the district to which He had gone. 
In the meantime Lazarus died. Christ announced the fact 
of his death to the disciples, and then proposed to go to 
Bethany and visit him. This resolution alarmed the dis- 

* This is the order of Wieseler and Robinson, and soems on the 
whole to agree best with the history. Neander supposes that our Lord 
spent part of the interval between the feast of Tabernacles and the 
feast of the Dedication iu Galilee, and that Ho there received the report 
of the seventy. Though adopting this arrangement, however, he seems 
10 prefer the order given above. 

19 



218 CHAPTER IV. 

ciples ; wlio had not forgotten the hostility of the Sanhe- 
drim, and Thomas deemed the result so hopeless, that he 
supposed their return to Jerusalem identical with a resolu- 
tion to die with their friend. (John xi. T-15.) Christ, 
however, proceeds to dispel their fears. He reminds them 
that they still had His personal guidance, and that walking 
in His light they v/ere secure. 

104. He returns at length to Bethany; the anxieties of 

the sisters are calmed. Jesus weeps at the 
grave of His friend, and offers audibly His 
prayer and thanksgiving to His Father ; not for His own 
sake, or as if this prayer and answer were something pecu- 
liar, but for the sake of the Jews ; and closes the scene by 
raising the dead man from his grave. (John xi.) The 
miracle is so striking, that the disciples had their faith 
strengthened, and many, even of the Jews, believed. 

105. The narrative of this chapter is one of the most 

touchins; and instructive in Scripture, as a re- 

Christ the re- ° f f 

surrection and vclatiou in relation to Christ, and in relation 

the life. 

to individual experience. Here, for the first 
time. He is himself clearly revealed as ^*the resurrection 
and life.'' Parables and particular passages had involved 
this truth — here it is stated plainly, under circumstances 
peculiarly affecting. 

The Resurrection and the Life ! He has announced it. 
He is himself the 'pledge of it. It is to His death we owe 
it. It is His power that achieves it. Mark how these 
thoughts are illustrated in different parts of Scripture. 
^'Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming when they 
that are in their graves shall hear the voice of the Son of 
man, and shall come forth." ^^ God, who is rich in mercy, 
for His great love wherewith He hath loved us, even when 
we were dead in sins, quickened us together with Christ." 
^' Since by man came death, by man came also the resur- 
rection of the dead." ''The first man is of the earth 



§ 4. DISCLOSURES IN GALILEE AND JUD^A. 219 

earthy ; the second man is the Lord from heaven ; and as 
we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear 
the image of the heavenly." ^' This is the will of Him 
that sent me, that every one that seeth the Son, and be- 
lieveth on Him, may have everlasting life ; and I will raise 
him up at the last day." *' I am the resurrection and the 
life." *^ Lo I this is our God ; we have waited for Him 
we will be glad, and rejoice in his salvation." (John v. 28 
Eph. ii. 4,5; 1 Cor. xv. 21, 47-49; John vi. 40; xi. 25 
Is, XXV. 9.) 

106. Looking at the fifteenth verse of the chapter, how 
instructive to notice the facts it contains. Lessons in re- 
Christ^s movements regulated by regard for chrS'sVo- 
the welfare of His disciples ; all done for the <^<^®^^^ss- 
increase of their faith — the quality on which, mainly. 
Christian excellence depends — all done in a way contrary 
to their hopes; (''If thou hadst been here, my brother 
had not died;") one disciple suffering for the benefit of his 
brethren : Christ, never too confident of His power, nor 
too late in His movements (''Let us go unto him^^). 
These are truths illustrated in every Christian's life, but 
never more impressively than in this touching history. 

10 Y. The raising of Lazarus exerted an important influ- 
ence in hastening the final catastrophe of the 

IT. IT ^^^ influence 

life of our Lord. On the one hand, it led of this miracle 

_ , - , , -, T^^ tb^ move- 

many to believe ; and, on the other, it induced ments of the 

the ruling party to take active measures against 
Him. They were satisfied that their sentence of excom- 
munication against His followers had failed, and they began 
to fear, that if they let Him alone, all men would believe. 
A meeting of the Sanhedrim was therefore summoned, and 
the most turbulent race that ever lived made the peace of 
the state their plea for decisive measures. " If this thing 
go on," said they, " the people will proclaim Him king, and 
the Romans will come and take away our place and nation.'' 



220 CHAPTER IV. 

(John xi. 48-50.) Caiaphas, the high priest, concurring in 
this view, decided (in language of prophetic import) that 
it was better that one should die for all, than that the 
nation should perish." It was therefore resolved, on pre- 
tence of the safety of the state, that Jesus must die ; and 
an order was issued for seizing His person, in the event 
of His attending the coming festival of the Passover. 

08. After this decision Christ retired again to Persea, 
Christ retires whcrc great multitudes followed Him. Many 
again to Peraea. inQ^j^aclcs wcrc wrought by Him during this 
journey, and the details of a few are recorded. His chief 
teaching, however, was by parables. The whole narrative 
is instructive, and may be found between the thirteenth 
and nineteenth chapters of Luke. Twice, during those 
four months. He foretells His own death : first, as recorded 
in Luke xiii. 33 ; again, in Luke xviii. 31-35 ; in the 
second case, with most remarkable minuteness and pathos. 
Again also, a third time, in reply to the ambitious request 
of the mother of James and John, where He speaks of His 
baptism of suffering, and of His giving His life ^'a ransom 
for many ;" an expression which itself suggests the vica- 
rious and atoning character of His death. (Matt. xx. 28.) 

109. In relation to the law, Christ taught, as we have 

seen, its spirituality and its comprehensiveness, 
the law, ohedi- It is suuimcd up in lovc — lovc to God and 

euce is love. ^ ^ t . , • , i 

love to man ; and its requirements can be 
fulfilled by no other obedience. We are now prepared to 
appreciate the meaning and significancy of faith. 

110. In relation to Himself, Christ teaches, as we now 

^ see, that He is the Saviour of our race, the 

In relation to 

Christ, oht'di- hoBc of the ffuiltv, the bread of the perishinor 

euce is faith. ^ & J? r fo, 

the life of the dead ; that to save us He gives 
His life for ours, and that to profit by His work we need 
to believe. The nature of the relation of His death to our 
salvation belongs properly to another place ; the truth to 



§ 4. DISCLOSURES IN GALILEE AND JVBA^A. 221 

be noticed here, is the connection bet\Yeen salvation and 
faith. 

111. All the blessings of the Gospel are represented as 

depending upon this principle. Is sin can- 

All blessings o r r 

dependent on ccllcd ? Are wc acccptcd as thouo-h we were 

faith. ^ ^ 

guiltless ? *^ Being justified by faith ^ we have 
peace with God.'' Are we exhorted to be holy ? We must 
be ''sanctified 5y faith that is in Christ." Do we need 
consolation? ''In Him believing we rejoice with joy un- 
speakable and full of glory." Do we live ? It is " by the 
faith of the Son of God." Do we walk? "We walk by 
faith.^^ Do we stand? "We stand by faith.^^ Do we 
conquer ? " This is the victory that overcometh the world, 
even our faith.^^ In a word, without it there is no salva- 
tion. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt 
be saved." It is to man all that Christ is ; for j^jg to man aii 
it is by faith only that we accept Him for the t^^tchnstis 
purposes which He is sent to accomplish. He is God's 
unspeakable gift, therefore receive Him. He is the refuge 
of the guilty, enter into Him. He is the prophet, listen to 
His voice. He is priest — trust His sacrifice. He is king 
— obey His commands. He is our brother man — cherish 
towards Him a brother's love. He is the mighty God, 
reverence and adore Him. These feelings are faith, and 
by faith we are saved. 

112. Unbelief, on the other hand, is the damning sin. 
All else may be forgiven, but not this. It is 
contempt of Divine law; "for this is God's condemuiug 

" commandment^ that we should believe on the 
name of His Son, Jesus Christ." (1 John iii. 23.) It is 
the denial of the truth of God ; of His wisdom and love. 
It involves the rejection of mercy and the exclusion of 
hope. " He that despised Moses' law, died without mercy 
under two or three witnesses ; of how much sorer punish- 
ment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath 

19* 



222 CHAPTER IV. 

trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the 
blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an 
nnholj thing, and hath done despite to the Spirit of grace." 
^' He that believeth not shall be damned." (Mark xvi. 16 ; 
Heb. X. 28, 29.) 

Sect. 5. — Teaching by Parables. 

113. Some few weeks before our Lord fed the five thou- 
sand, and delivered His discourse in the syna- 

Pfirjililps first 

gogue of Capernaum, but many months after used by our 
the commencement of His ministry. He seems 
to have introduced a new and very favorite form of teach- 
ing ; new to Him, but very familiar to Jewish teachers. 
"We refer to His parables. 

114. The advantage of this kind of teaching is, that it 

tests men's dispositions, (Matt. xiii. 13,) and 
this kind of is well adapted to give a figurative exhibition 

teaching. 

of truth before it is intended clearly to reveal 
it. It is often useful, moreover, in gaining a man's judg- 
ment against himself; and even where there is no need of 
concealment, it attracts the attention of men, who might 
otherwise have remained indifferent. It is for one or other 
of these purposes that the parable is employed with such 
frequency by our Lord. 

115. For the interpretation of these parables, one or 

two rules may be mentioned as important. 

Bulesfortbe _ _ "^ _ _ „ , , 

i')terpretation It may bc gathered from the place which 
this form of teaching occupies in His public 
ministry, that parables must never be made the first or 
sole ground of doctrine. Doctrines otherwise proved may 
be illustrated or confirmed by them, but beyond this we 
must not go. It is a modification of this rule, that what- 
ever in them is abstruse must be interpreted according to 
those parts of Scripture which are plain. 

The great rules of interpretation are: Ascertain the 



§ 5. TEACHING BY PARABLES. 223 

scope, either by reference to the context or to parable pas- 
sages ; seize the one truth which the parallel is intended 
to set forth, and let those parts of the parable which are 
explained be explained in harmony with it. Any inter- 
pretation of a particular part which is not consistent with 
the great truth which the whole represents, or which does 
not tend to elucidate it, reject ; and even of doctrines 
which are consistent with the general design, no one must 
be received that does not agree with the clear revelations 
of Scripture. 

116. How far the different parts of a parable may be 
interpreted and applied, is an interesting how far aii the 
question. From the specimens of parable in- ^^J^ar J signm- 
terpretation which are given in Scripture, it ^*^*- 
may be gathered that we must avoid both the extreme of 
supposing that only the general design is to be regarded, 
and the extreme of insisting upon every clause as having a 
double and spiritually significant meaning. In the parable 
of the sower, for example, which oar Lord himself inter- 
preted, the moral application descends to the minutest par- 
ticulars. (Matt. xiii. 41.) The birds, the stony ground, the 
thorns have all their meaning; and, as Tholuck has re- 
marked, it may be said generally, that the similitude of a 
parable is perfect in proportion as it is on all sides rich in 
practical applications. In the parables of the tares and of 
the unjust steward, again, not all the circumstances are 
explained. 'While men slept," in the first, (Matt. xiii. 25,) 
and the phrase '' I cannot dig, and to beg I am ashamed,'' 
in the second, have neither of them any application in the 
inspired explanation of our Lord. (Luke xvi. 3.) 

Provided, however, we keep in view the great lesson t)f 
a parable, and interpret all its parts in harmony with that 
lesson, there is little danger of our abusing this form of 
instruction. If it be abused, the habit of mind which such 
a practice tends to strengthen must prove mischievous ; 



224 CHAPTER IV. 

either leading into serious errors, or tempting us to leave 
uncultivated one of the richest fields of Scriptural study. 

IIY. We come now to the first parable. Our Lord's first 
miracle taught the superiority of His Gospel as compared 
with the law ; His first discourse, the nature and require- 
ments of His kingdom, and the means of its establishment. 
Christ's first ^^^ ^^^^ parable is also, in its own way, 
parable. solemn and appropriate. 

It was spoken in Galilee. An atrocious act of Pilate's 
which had excited attention at the time, induced some of 
our Lord's hearers to ask His opinion upon it ; hinting, 
probably, that as the blood of the murdered Galileans had 
been mingled with their sacrifices, they had been guilty of 
some enormous sin. Christ rebuked this uncharitable 
spirit ; reminded them that in the chastisement which had 
overtaken others, they might see an image of the chastise- 
ment that might one day overtake themselves ; and inti- 
mated that however true it might be that the sufferings of 
the human race are the consequence of transgression, par- 
ticular individual suffering may not be the consequence of 
individual sin. Such events (he shows them by another 
instance) are rather calls to repentance to those who are 
spared, than evidences of the special anger of God or of 
the peculiar guilt of the sufferers. (Luke xiii. 1-9.) 

After this warning he again brings the side of grace 
prominently forward ; and while he represents the punish- 
ment of neglected opportunity as certain, he reminds them 
that punishment is deferred that men may turn and live. 

His first parable, therefore, teaches the long-suffering 

and severity of God. In the world, as a fig-tree in a 

vineyard, the Jewish people were established 

Its meaning. ^ ^ x jt 

that they might bear fruit to God's glory. 
Fruit they were to bear, the organic produce, that is, of 
the inner life ; not something growing as an excresence, or 
merely attached from without. On coming to seek for this 



§ 5, TEACHING BY PARABLES. 225 

fruit, the owner found none ; poisonous fruit (f pya Tiovyjpd) 
he might have found; withered fruit (^pya vsxpd), fruit fair 
perchance in appearance, but not of living growth, he 
might also have found ; but good fruit (f'pya ;ca7.a, I'pya "^ 
dyot^a) there was none. For three years — a time quite 
sufficient to have exhausted His patience and prove the 
nature of the tree ; or perhaps intimating by this expression 
that under three dispensations He, the great proprietor^ 
had visited them, that of the law, that of the prophets and 
His own ; or again by the appeals of natural law, and of 
written law, and now, last of all, of His gospel — for three 
years (at all events) have I come, says He, seeking fruit 
and finding none. *' Cut it down ; for why should it, in ad- 
dition to its worthlessness, injure and impoverish the 
ground" (xatapyel xai triv yyjv)? At the request of the 
dresser of the vineyard, however, it is spared for another 
year, and the interval is spent in digging around and ma- 
nuring; in the appliance, in short, of all those means 
which in God^s dealings with man are generally multiplied 
immediately before they are forever withdrawn. 

And such is the general principle of God's procedure. 
Before the flood the world had Noah, a 

The general 

preacher of rii^hteousness ; and one hundred principle m- 

1 11 -. 1 volyed. 

and twenty years were allowed them to return. 
Before the catastrophe of the captivity the Jews had most 
of their greatest prophets, who for many years warned and 
instructed them. Before the final destruction of Jerusalem, 
they had the ministry of Christ and his apostles. 

How affecting that God should thus threaten, that He 
may not chastise, and chastise that He may 

•^ '^ Lessons. 

not condemn. Postponements of judgment 
are intended as mercies ; but they may be abused to the 
aggravation of our guilt. As God thus deals with nations, 
so He deals with individual inquirers. All abused privi- 
lege will ultimately magnify divine love and justice : love 



226 CHAPTER IV. 

in bestowing it, and justice in the consequent ruin that our 
abuse of it will have incurred. 

118. The significance of this parable is increased by 

comparing it with one of those which our Lord 
one of his latest delivered during the few last days of His life. 

Here it is the fig-tree to which the Jews are 
compared ; a tree not generally planted in vineyards, but 
suffered to grow in the hedge, and even there expected to be 
fruitful. (Luke xiii. t.) In the other parable the tree is the 
vine, which seems chosen to represent the value of the plant, 
and the care required in cultivating it.* (Luke xx. 9.) The 
image is also in frequent use in the Old Testament, so that 
it is doubly appropriate ; itself familiar and connecting the 
two dispensations. f There, too, the husbandman is the 
planter as well as owner, and the whole is let out to vine- 
dressers. It was solemnly entrusted to them, and they 
were to bring a proportion of its fruit in its season. He 
afterwards sent his servants to receive his share ; but one 
they slew, and another they ill treated, till at length he 
was constrained to send his own son, his only son, his well- 
beloved : phrases all intended to indicate, as strongly as 
possible, the difference between him and the servants he 
had previously sent — the worth, and dignity, and dearness 
of his person. ^'And when the husbandmen saw him, they 
said, This is the heir ; come, let us kill him, and the inherit- 
ance will be ours ; and they cast him out of the vineyard 
(^without the gate'), and slew him." 

The moral and the application are immediate. The 
three evangelists all notice the exasperation of the Pha- 
risees and Scribes (the vine-dressers of the parable) ; and 
Christ only stays to intimate, by a change of the figure, 
that after all the purpose of God will be achieved; the 

* Nulla possessiopretiosior, nulla majorem operam requirens. 
f Deut, xxxii.; Ps. Ixxx. ; Isa. v. ; xxvii. ; Jer. ii. ; Ezek xv. 



§ 2. TEACHING BY PARABLES. 227 

vineyard will yet yield its fruit, and the rejected stone be- 
come the head of the corner. 

Among the first and last parables, therefore, which our 
Lord spoke, were two in which He set forth man's profit- 
lessness and guilt, God's severity and love ; truths at the 
foundation of our faith. 

119. The whole of the parables of our Lord belong 
more or less completely to the doctrine of His parabies divid- 
kingdom ; and they may be arranged so as to itnUh^JZre 
exhibit its progress, its peculiarities, and its ?he k[n|dom^^ 
final development. . of God. 

1. Parables on the progress of the kingdom of Christ. 

The sower. Matt. xiii. 3; Luke viii. 5; Mark ivr 3. 

The tares. Matt. xiii. 24. 

The mustard seed. Matt. xiii. 31 ; Mark Iv. 31 ; Luke xiii. 18, 19. 

The leaven. Matt, xiii. 33 ; Luke xiii. 20, 21. 

The hidden treasure. Matt. xiii. 44. 

The pearl. Matt. xiii. 45, 46. 

The net. Matt. xiii. 47 

2. Call to enter the kingdom of Christ. 

The feast. Luke xiv. 16-24. 

The royal marriage. Matt. xxii. 1-14. 

3. Moral requisites for entering the kingdom of Christ. 

A. Anti-pharisaic, 

The lost sheep. Matt, xviii. 12 ; Luke xv. 4, 

The lost piece of money. Luke xv. 10. 

The prodigal son. Luke xv. 11-22. 

Strife for the first places at feasts. Luke xiv. 7-11. 

B. Positive requisites. 

The sower. Matt. xiii. 3-23. 

The wedding garment. Matt. xxii. 12, 

The two sons. Matt. xxi. 28. 

The tower and the warring king. Luke xiv. 28-33. 

4. The true spirit of the kingdom of Christ. 

A. Forgiveness and love. 

The good Samaritan. Luke x. 25-37. 

The unforgiving servant. Matt, xviii. 23 ; Luke vii. 41. 



228 CHAPTER IT. 

B. Prayer. 

The importunate friend. Luke xi. 
The importunate widow. Luke xviii. 1. 

C. The right use of worldly possessions. 
The rich fool. Luke xii. 7, 16-21. 
The unjust steward. Luke xvi. 1-13. 

The rich man and Lazarus. Luke xvi. 19-31. 

D. The Spirit of the kingdom under the character of prudence and 

watchfulness. 
The householder. Matt. xxiv. 45-51. 
The ten virgins. Matt. xxv. 
The pounds. Luke xix. 2-28 ; Matt. xxv. 

5. Activity in the kingdom of Christ. 

A. Its source. 

The vine. John xv. 1. 

The barren fig-tree. Luke xiii. 6. 

The wicked vine-dressers. Matt. xxi. 33-41. 

The talents. Matt. xxv. 14-30. 

B. Favor independent of works. 
The laborers. Matt. xx. 1-16. 

c. Duties belonging to man, results to God. 
The ripening corn. Mark iv. 26. 

We but indicate the significance and meaning of these 
parables. No paraphrase can exhaust or fairly represent 
them. They may be studied and restudied. There is 
nothing more profound or instructive in all the teachings of 
our Lord. 

120. There are two peculiarities more in these parables 
Each parable wMch uccd to be uudcrstood, in order that we 
TartM view^of ^^7 i^^^^J appreciate them. Most of them 
truth. exhibit but partial views of truth, some phase 

or corner, and not the whole ; we must therefore compare 
them — and some of them are prophetic. 

The parable of the ten virgins, for example, sets forth 
the duty of a watting Christian. (Matt, xxv.) 
The five wise are those who are prudently and ^ 
thoughtfully conscious of their responsibilities and office 



§ 5. TEACHING BY PARABLES. 229 

(^povtfiov). The five foolish have only an external profes- 
sion of Christian life ; life in outward manifestation only, 
not fed from any internal fountain. There is in both, 
even among the faithful, a certain acquiescence in present 
things ; though between the two classes there is the wide 
distinction, that the case of the wise is remediable, while 
that of the unwise is without remedy. 

Comparing this parable with the marriage of the king's 
son, where the unworthy guest actually finds Hence the im- 
admission to the marriage supper, and is only comparing^ 
thence cast out, (Matt, xxii 1-14,) we gather *^®°^- 
that there is a church on earth with a feast of blessings, as 
well as a church in heaven, and that some will be found in 
the one, and not in the other. 

Comparing this parable of the virgins with the parable 
of the ten talents which immediately follows it, we gather 
that Christians are not only to wait for Christ, but to 
WORK for Him ; and that not only is decay and declension 
in the spiritual life condemned, but also sloth and idleness 
in our outward and earthly engagements. The two com- 
pared may also suggest, that the contemplative and the 
active character make up the complete Christian ; and that 
the one element may predominate in one man, and the 
other in another. 

Comparing the two parables of Matthew and Luke, other 
minor instructive facts appear. (Matt. xxv. ; Luke xix.) 
To every man these talents were given according to his 
individual ability ; the privileges of grace not destroying 
the peculiarities of personal character, nor bringing all to 
the same standard, but rather filling the vessel which is 
formed by the natural gift. 

In Matthew the faithful servant says : ^^ Behold I have 
gained ;'' while in Luke his language is, ^^ Thy pound 
hath gained :" the two accounts making up the acknow- 
ledgment of Paul, ^' I, yet not I, but the grace of Christ 

20 



230 CHAPTER IV. 

in me." The servant who is punished, moreover, is not 
one who, like the unjust steward, has wasted his master^s 
goods. Nor has he spent his portion in riotous living like 
the Prodigal. Nor was he ten thousand talents in debt, 
like the unmerciful servant. Still his guilt was great and 
peculiar ; and the lesson taught is, that men are answerable 
not only for positive sin, but for the neglect of privilege. 
The pound wrapped in the napkin, and the talent hid in 
the earth, are subjects of just condemnation. 

Nor is it undeserving of notice, that while the virgins 
sinned through over-confidence, the man with the one talent 
sinned through distrust. To doubt our Lord^s forgiving 
love, and his gracious acceptance of our work, with all its 
faults, if done from a true heart, is itself sinful, and the 
cause of sin ; as powerful a cause perhaps as the excessive 
confidence, and consequent indifference of his sleeping 
church. To both classes Scripture has words of counsel ; 
to the second, ^' Work out your own salvation with fear 
and trembling" (Phil. ii. 12); and to the first, '' Ye are 
not come unto the mount that might not be touched, and 
that burned with fire ; nor unto blackness, and darkness, 
and tempest. . . . But ye are come unto Mount Sion, and 
unto the city of the living God .... and to Jesus, the 
mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprink- 
ling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel." (Heb. 
xii. 18-24.) 

What a fearful picture does this parable or the talents 
give us of the condemned sinner, half-cowering and half- 
defying; and even on his own ground how justly is he 
condemned ! The opportunities and the place which he 
had left unused, and has therefore forfeited, God (as His 
rule is) hands over to another. And not only is the talent 
forfeited, but the unprofitable servant is himself cast into 
outer darkness. While within there is joy, and light, and 
feasting, to celebrate the master's return, the darkness 



§ 5. TEACHING BY PARABLES. 231 

without is his portion, the blessedness he might have gained 
forever lost. 

Study, therefore, the truths and the parables of the 
Gospel as a whole. So shall we gain juster conceptions 
of their meaning, and a clearer insight into the love and 
wisdom which the Bible reveals. 

121. The second peculiarity of the parables of Christ, is 
their prophetic character. They contain de- 
scriptions both of the past and of the future ; times pro- 
of human nature in all time, and of the pro- 
gress and development of the kingdom of God. 

The parables of the thirteenth of Matthew, for example, 
are individually highly instructive ; and they are no less 
so in their connection as embodying a complete history of 
the church. 

In the first parable, that of the sower, we have the his- 
tory of the commencement of the Gospel. It 

. J ' J.' n ci ' 1 1 TT- Illustrated in 

IS descriptive of our Saviour^s own work ; His the parables 
instructions scattering the seed of the kingdom 
by every mountain, and stream, and city of His native land, 
with most diversified results. Some heard, but History of the 
understood not His sayings. Others heard ^^"^^^• 
with joy, and gave some fair promise of blossom and fruit ; 
but the seed perished because it had no root, no fixed vital 
principle in them. In others the seed was choked by the 
cares of the world, or by stealthy attachment to its plea- 
sures. Others, again, received it, and bore fruit, thirty, 
sixty, or an hundred fold : a distinction of character re- 
tained throughout Scripture, which tells us that there are 
little children, and young men, and fathers in Christ, (1 
John ii. 13,) as there are in the world the ungodly, the 
sinner, and the scornful. 

And this fulfillment might have been witnessed and 
studied in the lifetime of our Lord. He well said to His 



232 CHAPTER IV. 

disciples : '^ Know ye not this parable ; how then can ye 
know all parables ?" (Mark iv. 13.) 

In the parable of the tares, He gives the history of the 
church in the ages immediately following His own. Cor- 
ruption and evil sprang up almost as early as truth, and 
ripened more quickly.* 

The third parable exhibits the rapid growth of the visible 
church. The seed speedily becomes a tree, so strong, that 
others made it their shelter : '' The birds of the air came 
and dwelt in the branches thereof.'' 

This union was found signally unfavorable to the purity 
of truth. At first the visible church had been well nigh 
identical with the invisible; but now whole nations are 
nominally converted in one day ; and at length, in the dark 
ages, the most fearful crimes are perpetrated under the 
name, and with the sanction of what was called religion. 

Even then, however, the true spirit existed somewhere, 
though dormant. In the mass, however lifeless, there was 
concealed a little leaven, working unseen, still retaining its 
energy and power, and gradually assimilating the lump to 
itself. In the fullness of time (as the fourth parable teaches) 
the whole will be leavened, and the earth will be filled with 
the knowledge of the Lord. 

But how is this result to be achieved ? A question 
answered in the fifth and sixth parables of this chapter. 

Some will find the truth who have not sought it, and 
these are the accidental treasure-finders. Others will find 
it as the result of diligent search. 

The ffth parable represents the man who stumbles 
unexpectedly upon the Gospel, and recognizes its worth. 
His judgment and his feelings are all interested in the dis- 

•* The seeds of corruption were sown secretly; unworthy members 
being admitted unawares. The evil is confined to no age ; but requires 
habitual watchfulness in our own. " While men slept, the enemy came 
and sowed tares." J. N. B. 



\ 



4 



§ 5. TEACHING BY PARABLES. 233 

covery. So is it with the converted prodigal, with the 
man reclaimed by some awakening dispensation of the 
providences of God, or by the earnest address of the 
preacher. So was it with the Reformation of the sixteenth 
century. So also with the revivals of true religion in 
modern times, with all epidemic movements of piety (if they 
may be so called) as distinguished from the earnest perse- 
vering spirit which the next parable suggests. Nor is it 
insignificant to notice, that the man who thus lights upon 
truth, buys the field in which the treasure is found. Cap- 
tivated with religion and the blessings it confers, he finds 
at first a difficulty in distinguishing between the accidental 
and the real ; between its adjuncts and its essentials. In 
time he is able to say, ^' Grace be with all them that love 
our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity ;" (Eph. vi. 24 ;) but 
this sentiment is the fruit of expanded charity; and his 
first feeling is somewhat exclusive and restricted. 

The sixth parable describes another class of converts, 
already pretty numerous in our age, and likely to be 
largely augmented — the truth-seeher ; the merchantman 
dealing in goodly pearls. It is his business to seek the 
goodliest. Continuously and determinately he employs 
his skill. At length he succeeds ; and, finding true piety, 
the kingdom of God, to be the pearl of great price, he 
secures it with no less firmness and decision than the trea- 
sare-finder, but with less boisterous joy ; and with the 
advantage of purchasing only the pearl, not also the field 
that contained it. 

The unity and the love of the last days of the church 
will depend much on the general diffusion in our age of 
intelligent piety. The careless and the ignorant may be 
surprised into the Gospel, and be blessed and saved by it ; 
but they are not likely to take the Gospel only. There 
are sure to be in their faith human admixtures of prejudice, 

20* 



234 CHAPTER IV. 

of party feeling. The age of pearl-seefer* will be the 
brighest for the church. 

The last parable closes the scene : it foretells the univer- 
sal spread of the Gospel, and intimates that not till the 
end of the dispensation will the separation of the wicked 
and the holy be complete. 

The whole of the parables, it will be noticed, admit and 
receive a beautiful personal application to individual cha- 
racter; but they are, in the opinion of many thoughtful 
men, no less applicable to distinct eras in the history of 
the church.* 

122. Especially does this prophetic character belong to 
Prophetic para- ^^^' ^^^^^ parablcs of our Lord : the laborers 
^^^^' in the vineyard, the ten pounds, the wicked 

husbandmen, the marriage of the king's son, the ten vir- 
gins, and the talents — all spoken within the last days of 
His life — contain intimation of His second coming; and 
some of them of the decisions of the judgment. 

* Alexander Knox has given this view of the parables of this chapter; 
and his remarks have been made an illustration of the general truth. 
The volume of Mr. Maurice on the Parables is rich in happy illustrations 
of Scripture truth. See also Storr, Neander, Lisco, and Trench, 



1 



CHAPTER V. 



CHRIST THE PRIEST AND SACRIFICE. 

§ 1. Christ goes up to Jerusalem to be crucified. 

§ 2. The Church and the institution of the Last Supper 

§ 3. The denial of Peter, and the Crucifixion of our 
Lord. 

§ 4. Christ crucified Afresh — or the feelings that actu- 
ated his murderers common to every age. 

§ 5. Christ our Propitiation and Priest — the influence 
of the cross on God and on man. 



(235) 



236 



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CHAPTER V. 



Sect. 4. — Christ goes to Jerusalem to be crucified. 

1. To avoid the snares of His enemies, and to secure a 
short season of undisturbed intercourse with His disciples, 
Jesus retired to the village of Ephraim, in the Christ in 
desert of Judaea, and thence to the valley of ^^^**- 

the Jordan. (John xi. 54.) Here He spent some time 
delivering the parables which are recorded between the 
tenth and thirteenth chapters of Luke, and preparing the 
minds of His disciples for the closing scenes of His life. 

As He knew that His return to the city would expose 
Him to the machinations of the Pharisees, it may be asked 
why He did not remain still ionger in secret. Might He 
not by such a course have carried on the religious training 
of His disciples, and so have prepared a greater number of 
agents to disseminate His truth. 

2. This question is natural ; and if Christ had been a 
mere teacher of truth like other prophets, it would not be 
easy to answer it. He, however, was not only a teacher ; 
He was to become a sacrifice. He had been 

./. ■ T . T 1 . -I-T-. n • Resolves to go 

maniiested, in order that m Him all previous up to the Pass- 
revelations might be fulfilled ; and especially 
that the types of the law and the predictions of the pro- 
phets might have in His death their appropriate realization. 
He did not seek this termination of His course ; but went 
to meet it, in the execution of His calling, in obedience to 

(239) 



240 CHAPTER V. 

the Divine will, and with a love that was prepared for any 
suffering. As therefore a few months before He had '' set 
His face steadfastly to go to Jerusalem/' so now He leaves 
Peraea with the same purpose, and with a clear perception 
of the final issue of His journey, 

3. On the way He heals the blind men near Jericho, 
Reaches Beth- "^isits ZacchsBus, and at length, six days before 
^^y- the Passover, arrives at Bethany. 

The fame of Christ had already reached the ears of the 
thousands of Jews who were now gathering from all quar- 
ters to the Holy City. The resurrection of Lazarus, in 
particular, had created a great sensation ; and as soon as 
Crowds visit ^.^^ sabbath-law allowed, crowds flocked to 
Him there. Bethany to see Jesus, and to convince them- 
selves, by inquiry and other evidence, of the reality of the 
miracle. The enthusiasm on our Lord's behalf was so 
strong, that the chief priests consulted that they might put 
Lazarus also to death. (John xii. 10.) 

4. Attended by His disciples and the multitude that 

had gathered to Bethany, Christ set out for 
ant entry into Jerusalem. Many others advanced from the 
city to meet Him, and in the increasing throng 
Monday morn- Christ mouutcd an ass which His disciples had 
^^^' found in a village near, and so rode towards 

the gates. He thus aptly represented the peaceable cha- 
racter of His kingdom, and its total rejection of worldly 
display, as foretold by Zachariah. With joyous shouts He 
was introduced into the city, while on all sides was heard 
the cry: '^Hosannah, blessed is He that cometh in the 
name of the Lord.'' 

As he descended the Mount of Olives, before entering 
the city, he saw it and wept over it ; and uttered a pro- 
phecy, which its later history amply verified. (Luke xix. 
43, 44) 

5. The raising of Lazarus had, as might have been ex- 



§ 1. CHRIST GOES TO JERUSALEM TO BE CRUCIFIED. 241 

pected; hastened the resolution of the Sanhedrim to put 
Jesus to death. The time and mode of His pj^^g ^^ ^i^^ 
execution depended on the manner of His ^^^^i^ees. 
arrival in the city ; and the Sanhedrim had already ordered 
that, if any one ascertained His place of abode, they 
should be informed of it, that measures might be taken for 
His arrest. (John xi. 53-51.) The triumphant entry of 
Christ, and the shouts of the multitude, was a severe blow 
to their party. *' See,'' said they in anger, '' how ye pre- 
vail nothing ; behold the world is gone after Him" (xii. 19). 
They determine, therefore, to make use of craft in order to 
ensnare Him ; and though they had already gathered 
abundant material from His labors in Galilee and Jerusa- 
lem to sustain the charge they were seeking to bring 
against Him, namely, that He claimed to be the Messiah, 
they thought it better to seek some new facts that might 
either justify an accusation on the ground of the Jewish 
law, or enable them to present Him as a culprit to the 
Roman authorities. 

6. They first of all sent some of their number to ask for 
the authority on which he founded his assump- 

•^ ^ They send to 

tion. In reply, Christ admitted their right to to ask his au- 

^ •^ ' ^ . thority. 

ask the question, but seemed to doubt their 
ability to judge of the evidence that ought to guide their 
decision. He therefore tested them ; and as they could not 
answer His qnestion. He declined to tell them by what au- 
thority He performed His miracles and asserted His claim. 
(Matt. xxi. 23-2t.) 

1. They then combined with the Herodians, and framed 
a question which, they thought, could hardly ^-^^^ ^^^ He- 
be answered without offending either priests or ask inL^about 
the politicians. ''Master," said they, ''we ^^^^"t^- 
know that Thou art true. Is it lawful to give tribute to 
Caesar or not?" (Matt. xxii. 15-21.) To deny the obli- 
gation would have subjected Him to accusation before the 

21 



242 CHAPTER Y. 

Roman tribunal ; to acknowledge it, would have laid Him 
open to the charge of degrading the nation. Christ's reply 
indicated that it was not His office to alter the relations of 
civil society, and that ''the things of Caesar are to be 
given to Caesar, and the things of God to God." 

Both attempts therefore failed, and it was clearly impos- 
sible to render Christ justly amenable to either tribunal. 

8. A question asked by the Sadducees, with no political 
The question of reference, however, received an equally deci- 
on^hete^sur' sive auswcr ; and after that ''they durst not 
roction. ^g]^ jj^^ ^^j question." (Luke xx. 20-40.) 

The days of this week He spent in Jerusalem and at 
Bethany, in healing the blind and the lame, 

Enjragements . . . . 

of this last receiving their ascriptions of praise; and in 
delivering some of the most solemn of His 
parables. To this period belong the parables of the two 
sons, of the wicked husbandmen, of the kingdom, of the 
ten virgins, of the king's son, and of the talents. 

To the same period also belong His predictions in refer- 
ence to His second coming and the destruction of Jerusa- 
lem (Matt. xxiv. XXV.) ; His lamentation over the city 
(Matt, xxiii.) ; and His warning against the evil example 
of the Pharisees. 

The significant miracle is the cursing of the barren fig- 
The miracle of ^^^^ 5 ^ Symbolical representation of the ap- 
the fig-tree. proachiug destiuy of the city. 

9. As in previous sections we have seen how He insists 
on the necessity of faith in His mission ; so here He repre- 
sents faith as proving itself by works (Matt. xxv. 31-46) ; 
and the importance of his doctrine on a working practical 
faith is enforced by representations of its connection with 
the decisions of the final judgment. 

10. Among the visitors at Jerusalem there were a few 
The visit of the Gciitiles who had come to the knowledge of 
Gentiles. ^-^^ ^^^^ Q^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^ accustomcd to worship 



§ 1. CHRIST GOES TO JERUSALEM TO BE CRUCIFIED. 243 

statedly at the feast. Christ's triumphal entry into the 
city awakened their attention, and made them desirous of 
speaking with Him. Not venturing to address Him per- 
sonally, they sought the mediation of His disciples. They 
spoke to Philip, Philip to Andrew, and both together 
*^ told Jesus." (John xii. 20-22.) 

11. Seeing in these cases a prefiguring of the great re- 
sults that were to flow from His own sufferings, 

Jesus said : '' The hour is come that the Son of effects of ms 
man should be glorified," and then He set 
forth the necessity of His death. The seed corn abideth 
alone, said He, except it die ; but when it dies it brings 
forth much fruit. (John xii. 23-31.) As He^ therefore, 
was to be glorified through suffering. He then intimates to 
His disciples that the glory destined for them was to be 
secured only in the same way. ^^ He that loveth his life 
(that is, makes this life his chief good) shall lose it ; but he 
that hateth his life in this world (that is, deems it valueless 
in comparison with the interests of my kingdom) shall 
keep it unto life eternal." 

12. '^ Now is my soul troubled." The kingdom which 
His death was about to establish, brought to 

His mind the struggles He must undergo be- spirit and 
fore His death could be accomplished. His ^^^^* 
will, however, is unshaken, and the calmness of His mind 
undisturbed. I cannot say, ^^ Father, save me from this 
hour. For this cause came I unto this hour, not to escape 
but to suffer it." To this completion of His work He had 
looked forward from the beginning ; all His feelings and 
wishes, therefore, are now centred upon it, that God may 
be glorified among men by His death. '^ Father ^ glorify 
thy name,'''' 

13. As He uttered this prayer, the very outgoing of 
unselfish holiness, there came a voice from hea- 
ven, saying, '^I have both glorified it, and 



24-1 CHAPTER V. 

will glorify it again." His previous life, iu which the 
perfect manifestation of God had been revealed, had glori- 
fied the name of the Father ; and now His sufferings and 
their results were to glorify it yet more in the establish- 
ment of His kingdom. 

He now interprets the voice, and shows how God is to 
be glorified. ^^ISTow is the judgment of this 
world ; now shall the prince of this world be 
cast out ; and I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw 
all men unto me." His sufferings are His victory; His 
work is finished by them, and they form the sentence of 
condemnation to the ungodly world ; or, possibly, on this 
hour are suspended the interests of the world. This is the 
crisis of its destiny. 

14. The 'public ministry of Christ now closes. His 
The last words ^^^^ words are a repetition of His earliest : *^ He 
of His ministry, ^j^^^ bclicveth OH mc, bcUeveth not on me, but 
on Him that sent me ; and he that seeth me, seeth 
Him that sent me. I am come a light into the world, 
that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in dark- 
ness. If any man hear my words and believe not, I judge 
him not ; for I came not to judge the world, but to save 
the world. He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my 
words, hath one that judgeth him ; the word that I have 
spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. (John 
xii. 34-48.) See John iii. 

15. Christ then left the temple, and spent the few hours 
, . , , that intervened between the end of His public 

His last hours *■ 

ppent with His ministry and His arrest, in instructins* and 

disciples. *^ __. . ^ _ ^ 

comfortmg His disciples. In these conversa- 
tions He displayed unequalled love and calmness, mingled 
with loftiness and humility. The last hours of His life 
He thus devoted, not to the comforting of His own mind, 
but of theirs ; in preparing not Himself but them for His 
approaching departure and the severe conflicts which vv^ere 



§ 2. THE CHURCH AND THE SUPPER OF OUR LORD. 245 

to accompany the formal commencement of His king- 
dom. 

16. The Sanhedrim, as we have seen, had resolved upon 
His death ; all that remained was to decide 

' Plan of the 

when and how it should be accomplished. An Sanhedrim 

aided by Judas. 

unexpected opportunity was soon afforded them 

by the proposition of Judas to deliver Him into their 

hands. (Luke xxii. 3-6.) 

It. In the end Christ was condemned — not for inter- 
fering with the secular power, for He disclaimed charge on 
all such interference ; nor yet for any violation ^as^p^t to^^^ 
of the Jewish law, for no charge was brought ^^''^^^' 
against Him on that ground ; but because He announced 
Himself to be the Messiah, (Matt. xxvi. 65,) in terms that 
implied equality with God. The connection of this fact 
with the innocence of His character and the completeness 
of His work will hereafter appear. 

Sect. 2. — The Church — and the Supper of our Lord. 

18. The public ministry of Christ is now completed. 
He has delivered His last discourse, and the 

hour of His death is at hand. Having come His work'as 
to Jerusalem with a full knowledge of what institutes the 
awaited Him, he regards His work as virtually ^^ ^^pp*-^- 
closed. He therefore administers to His disciples the 
last supper, gives them His parting counsel, and offers His 
intercessory prayer. In the narrative of these last hours 
of His life are some of the most touching exhibitions of 
His love. 

19. The whole is introduced by a significant act: He 
washes the feet of His disciples ; partly to re- hashes iiis 
move those carnal expectations of an earthly ^i^cipies' feet. 
kingdom which still cleaved to them, and partly to teach 
them by a specific act an important spiritual truth. 

20. This act, doubtless, surprised more than one of 

21-^ 



246 CHAPTER V. 

their number ; but their reverence for Him prevented their 
Peter'8 remon- resistiug His will. Peter only impetuously ex- 
cirrSexpia- claimed: ''Lord, dost thou wash my feet?" 
nation. ^^^^ ^^^^ when Christ told him that he should 

know the meaning of this act by and bye, he was not satis- 
fied ; till at length his self-will was rebuked by the decla- 
ration, ''If I wash thee not, thou hast no part in me." 
(John xiii.) As if Christ had said, "the renunciation of 
this spirit is essential to true discipleship ; nor can any 
enter my communion unless spiritually purified by me." 
Alarmed at this assurance, Peter cries out, " Lord, not my 
feet only, but also my hands and my head." To which 
Christ answers, " That is too much. He that is washed 
and clean, needs but to wash his feet. Ye have already 
received the purifying principle of life through faith in me, 
and all that is now required is continued purification. 
Your natures are renewed, and what you require is rather 
outward than inward ; the cleansing of the thoughts and 
feelings more than of the man P^ 

21. "Ye are clean," said He, "but not all." He thus 
prepared the way for the disclosure which He 

Indicates the i- ^ ^ 

traitor, who was about to make more plainly, that one of 

retires. 

them should betray Him. At this announce- 
ment the disciples were all confounded. Each began to 
say, "Is it I ?" nor did the one who was guilty ask the 
question till all had expressed, with the self-diffidence of 
true disciples, their suspicion of themselves. (John xiii. 10.) 
The Passover supper was now in progress, and Jesus 
answered their questions by intimating to John, who sat 
next Him at table, that the traitor was he to whom He 
was about to give a morsel of lamb or of bread, after He 
had dipped it in the sauce ; and, having dipped, he gave it 
to Judas. This warning of our Lord's, coupled as it was 
with an act expressive of close intimacy, might have awak- 
ened the conscience of the traitor ; failing to do this, it must 



§ 2. THE CHURCH AND THE SUPPER OF OUR LORD. 24T 

have made him anxious to leave such a fellowship, and to 
take the last step in his guilty course. He therefore went 
out immediately, and left the disciples with their Lord. 

22 '' And now," said Christ, '' is the Son of man glori- 
fied," (the ideal of all holiness is about to be Christ giori- 
realized,) and God is about to be glorified in ^^'^'^■ 
Him (the Divine holiness and love alike revealed) ; and 
if God be glorified in Him, God shall also glorify Him 
in himself, (shall raise Him, that is, to His own glory,) 
and shall straightway glorify Him. (John xiii. 31, 32.) 

23. He then instituted the last supper at the close, and 
in the place, therefore, of the paschal feast, 

^ ^ ' The supper in- 

giving the disciples the bread as His body, stituted its 

significaDcy. 

and the wine as His blood. The one, corn 
bruised, that the eater might live ; the other, the grape 
crushed, that those who partook of it might be refreshed — 
^^His body broken for us;" ''His blood, the seal and 
emblem of the new covenant, and given for many for the 
remission of sins." 

The Jlrst rite, therefore, which Christ observed and in- 
stituted, denotes the spiritual birth of the And relation to 
Christian. The last denotes the origin and the ^^p^^s^i- 
continued support of His spiritual life. Both are eminently 
simple, and highly significant. 

24. The nature of the church of Christ has already been 
intimated in connection with the repeated reve- His church His 
lations of His kingdom. His church is His ^'""sd^^- 
kingdom, and all in whose hearts He reigns are its mem- 
bers. But the meaning of this reign, its dependence 
above all on Himself and His priestly office, is gathered 
only from the closing chapters of St. John's Gospel. We 
shall therefore now notice the thoughts which are there 
expressed ; comparing them especially with acts and ex- 
pressions of our Lord on other occasions. 



h 



218 CHAPTER IV. 

25. Under the law God was the temporal ruler of the 
The law tempo- J^ws, as Well as their invisible King. He pre- 
^^^' scribed not only the religious rites, but the 
civil regulations under which they were to live ; and He 
enforced obedience by temporal sanctions. 

The worship enjoined under the law was also, to a great 
extent, carnal. It consisted in outward bodily acts ; and 
though most of them had an inward meaning, which be- 
came distinct when they were explained by the Gospel, yet 
were they in themselves profitless — figures only of things 
to come. 

The whole institution, moreover, was local and tempo- 
Local and par- ^^^^ > designed and adapted only for one peo- 
*^*^- pie. It had for its center Jerusalem, and for 

its limits the borders of Palestine ; so that no Gentile, 
even though a convert to Judaism, was admitted to equal 
privileges. What he did enjoy, moreover, was in the way 
of favor only, and not of right. 

26. Already has our Lord announced that His kingdom 
, , is spiritual ; and, less distinctly, that it is to be 

Christ's church ^ \ ^ '^ ^ 

spiritual and one and universal — announcements which are 

universal. 

brought out clearly in the closing chapters. 
His is a spiritual kingdom and a spiritual church. It is 
formed in man's heart, and it admits of no 

Bestowing , . , . . 

moreover equal othcr authority than IS m accordance with 

this character. Our Lord therefore disclaims 

all right to interfere in temporal concerns ; saying to one 

who wished Him to decide between him and his brother : 

Who made me a judge or a divider over you ?" (Luke 

xii. 13.) He bids His disciples submit to the civil power; 

and so far from promising long life and worldly 

prosperity as the rewards of obedience, He 

prepared them for suftering and death. (Matt, xxviii. 20.) 

So also, under this dispensation, worship is to be pre- 
sented in spirit and in truth— not with many outward visi- 



§ 2. THE CHURCH AND THE SUPPER OF OUR LORD. 249 

ble signs, as under the law, but with two simple ordi- 
nances ; the whole subject to the law of Christ, with the 
general rules given afterwards by His apostles, ordaining 
that all things should '^be done decently and in order,'' 
and ''for the edifying of the church." (1 Cor. xiv. 12-40.) 

As the old dispensation was intended for one nation, so 
is the new for all nations. The people of God is to com- 
prise henceforth not children of Abraham merely after the 
flesh, but as many as embrace the Gospel. 

All who thus embrace it are admitted to equal privi- 
leges. ''One Lord, one faith, one baptism." (Eph. iv. 5.) 
" Neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircum- 
cision, but a new creature." (Gal. vi. 15.) Here there is 
''neither Greek nor Jew, Barbarian nor Scythian, bond 
nor free." (Col. iii. 11.) 

The one church of Christ, therefore (His kingdom), is 
the whole body of the faithful ;* with duties which none but 
spiritual persons can discharge — privileges which none but 
spiritual persons can appreciate — and promises which none 
but spiritual persons can obtain. The spirituality of its 
members forms part at least of the essence of the church. 

2T. If, with these explanations before us, we traverse 
" the holy place" of the Gospel, as Olshausen 

•^ ^ ^ ^ Proved. 

calls it (John xiv.-xvii.), we shall see at once 
how these truths pervade this discourse, explain its mean- 
ing, and add to its impressiveness. 

In describing His disciples, He speaks of their privileges, 
their character, and their duties, and all are 

Christians spi- 

spiritual. Once they knew not God, but by ritual in privi- 
believing on Christ they learned to know Him, 
and to come to Him (xiv. t). Faith brings them into 
closest communion with their Lord. Henceforth He is in 
them. If he is the Vine, they are the branches. If he 
is the Head, they form His body. He goes to prepare a 

* See the note on page 205-6, and Appendix, Note II. 



250 CHAPTER V. 

place for them, that He may receive them to Himself 
Given by. the Father to the Son, they are preserved by -Al- 
mighty grace, and none shall pluck them out of the Father^s 
hand. Hated of the world, they are loved of God, and at 
last they shall behold and share His glory. 

As their privileges are spiritual, so is their character ; 
so also are their duties. They have believed, 
character and They are mcu of prayer ; and whatsoever they 
ask the Father in Christ's name (in dependence, 
that is, upon His merits, and for the interest of His 
Church), they are to receive. They are not servants, but 
friends, for their knowledge is founded on holy intimacy, 
and their activity is a willing obedience. They keep His 
sayings. They bear much fruit. They are in the world 
as Christ was in the world, blessing it, yet not identified 
with it, and as He sanctified Himself for their salvation, so 
are they sanctified by His truth. Among themselves they 
have but one law — old, yet new ; for it grows out of new 
relations, was illustrated in Christ by a new example, 
gathers strength from new motives, and is the sum of the 
holiness of the new man — to love one another even as 
Christ hath loved them : this law being the evidence of 
their discipleship, and the decisive proof of the divinity of 
His mission. 

28. The Church, then, is the noblest form of social life. 
It is the perfection of union. It is not a nation, 

The church not 

a nation or fa- but Something morc extensive, for it may in- 
clude all nations. It is, however, more select, 
for it takes none on the mere ground of national right. It 
is not a family, but something more expansive, for it is to 
comprehend all the families of the earth. It is yet equally 
caste, or secret tender in its bonds of union. It is not a caste ^ 
something* ^^"^ it dcspiscs uouc and rejects none. Yet, 
ad^antagfs^of ^^^e the castc, it preserves, amid human depra-- 
^^^* vity and change, a sacred order, not of minis- 



§ 2. THE CHURCH AND THE SUPPER OF OUR LORD. 251 

ters ; but of saints, all kings and priests unto God. It is 
not a secret society^ for it makes no reserve of its doctrines 
or practices from the world ; yet each of its members find, 
in the secret communings of his soul with God, the sources 
of a hidden life. Without the defects, therefore, of the 
nation, the family, the caste, or the secret society, it com- 
bines the advantages of them all. Its members are brethren ; 
they form a holy nation, a peculiar people — a band whose 
life, and principles, and motives, and strength, are all con- 
cealed and hidden with Christ in God. 

29. Such is the idea of the Church of Christ, as He 
Himself developed it. Where his Gospel was 

. , , Particular 

preached among the nations, churches were churches have 
formed ; little sections, that is, of this universal lege and cha- 
Church, were gathered together under the same 
laws, and for the same beneficent purposes.* They are 
therefore all described in similar terms. In Rome a church 
was formed, and its members were ^^ beloved of God, whose 
faith was spoken of throughout the whole world." So in 
Corinth, they were ''the sanctified in Christ Jesus." In 
Galatia, they were ''the children of the promise." In 
Ephesus, they were "the saints, the faithful in Christ Je- 
sus." In Philippi, they had " fellowship in the Gospel," 
and "the good work was begun in them." In Colosse, 
they were " saints who had been delivered from the king- 
dom of darkness, and translated into the kingdom of God^s 
dear Son." In Thessalonica, they were those to whom 
"the Gospel had come; not in word only, but also in 
power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance." 
And those whom the Apostle James addressed, were those 
whom God had " begotten by the word of truth, that they 
might be a kind of first,fruits of his creatures." 

All these expressions, it is not necessary to show, sup- 
port the conclusion drawn from the discourses of our Lord, 

* See Appendix, Note 11. 



252 CHAPTER V. 

that the one Church of Christ (with all sections of that 
church) is composed of spiritual, faithful, ^. e. believing 
men, converted by Divine grace, through the power of the 
truth. They rely on Christ as their salvation, and by vir- 
tue of their faith in Him, they bring forth appropriate 
fruit — a life of holiness and of love. 

30. It is in perfect accordance with this view of the 
The church the church that it is represented in Scripture as 
temple of God. ^^^ temple of the Holy Ghost. Under the 
Law the temple was at Jerusalem. There only, after the 
tabernacle was taken down, did God dwell and manifest 
His presence. In the days of our Lord He was Himself 
the temple ; hot, it will be observed, the synagogue, a place 
of assembly for worshipers, nor even the sacred precinct 
in which the temple was reared {to U^6v), but *^ the habita- 
tion itself {vao^)j where His honor dwelleth." Now, how- 
ever, the Church of Christ (not a literal building, not the 
body of our Lord, but the Church of Christ,) the great 
body of the faithful, forms the dwelling of the Spirit, and 
individual Christians are the living stones. ^^ Ye, "says 
the apostle, *' are built together into a holy temple to the 
Lord." (Eph. ii. 21.) 

31. This temple is without an altar, without sacrifices, 
Peculiarities of ^^^^ without a Sacrificing priest on earth. Its 
this temple. ^^^^ altar is the cross ; its sacrifice the one offer- 
ing of our Lord ; its priest. He who has passed into the 
heavens." Or, if the worshipers be regarded as offerers, 
the altar is their hearts ; the sacrifice is faith, and love, 
and praise ; and the priest is our Advocate on high. Us 
and our services He presents, with other merit than our 
own, unceasingly to God. (Rom. xii. 1 ; xv. 16.) 

32. We have but glanced at the truths of these chapters 

in John. They embrace, it will be observed, 

Deep signifi- 
cance of John the whole work of Christ : that work which 

xiVv— xtII. 

has its foundation in Himself, and is to be con- 



§ 3. TRIAL AND CRUCIFIXION OF CHRIST. 253 

summated in the complete communion of His people with 
Him — beginning in a kindred spirit, and in kindred labors 
on earth, and ending in kindred blessedness in heaven. 

Sect. 3. — The Denial of Peter — the Trial and Cruci- 
fixion OF Christ. 



33. And now the life of our Lord is drawinp; to its close. 

s warn- 



He and His disciples have partaken of the last Christ 
supper. Judas was already at work for the ^"^* 
betrayal of his Master; and our Lord, foreseeing His 
danger, had forewarned them of its approach. *' All of 
you," said He, ''shall be offended because of Me this 
night." (Mark. xiv. 2'7-31.) Peter, with his wonted bold- 
ness, denies our Lord's assertion: ''though all should be 
offended, yet will I never be offended." Christ repeated 
the warning, and gave it in a personal form. " Before 
cock-crowing," said He, "thou wilt deny me thrice." But 
he spake only the more vehemently : " If I should die with 
Thee, I will not deny Thee." So also said they all. 

34. Nor was this self-confidence unnatural. The disciples 
had just listened to the parting words of our Peter's seif-con- 
Saviour, and had been melted into tears at the L^meTespects 
announcement of His approaching departure. ^^*"^^^- 

As they walked through the quiet streets of the city to the 
garden of Gethsemane, all Jerusalem seemed wrapt in 
repose. Within the week Christ had entered the temple 
amidst the hosannas of the multitudes ; hypocritical pro- 
fessions of attachment seemed more easy at that hour than 
offence or denial. 

35. As soon as the disciples reached the garden our 
Lord renewed His warning, and desired them to pray lest 
they should enter into temptation ; while he went beyond 
them and prayed also. Taking with Him Peter and James 
and John, the three who had witnessed His transfiguration, 
He retired into a more secluded part of the garden. Here 

22 



254 CHAPTER V. 

He began ''to be sorrowful and very heavy." (Matt. xxvi. 
8T-39.) Anxious to be kept from interruption while He 
prepared His own mind for the events which were ap- 
proaching, He said to this chosen band: " Tarry ye here 
and watch with Me while I go and pray yonder," and then 
^ T ., left them. Soon he was overwhelmed with 
agony. agouy. Falling down to the ground, his body 

streaming with blood, he cried : '' Father, if it be possible, 
let this cup pass from Me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but 
as Thou wilt." He then rose, and visited these disciples ; 

but they were already asleep. He rouses them, 
want^of watch- cxhorts them to watch, and again retires to 

pray wdth yet stronger crying and tears. And 
again He had to rebuke their slumbers (v. 40-45). How 
affecting, that the only personal request Christ ever asked 
of His disciples should have been denied by the boldest 
and most ardent of them 1 Peter must long have remem- 
bered these scenes. 

36. The time for prayer had now passed. The soldiery, 
The approach ^^^^ lautcms and torches, are already in the 
of the soldiery, garden; again Jesus calls the sleepers, and 
tells them of the approach of the betrayer. Before He 
had completed His warning, Peter found himself surround- 
ed with armed men ; the recollection of his Master's pre- 
diction flashed across his mind ; and the time of trial he 
supposes to have come — he has now a character to redeem, li 
To show therefore that, though just now asleep, he is pre- i 
pared for any emergency, he drew his sword, and smote off j 
the ear of the servant of the high-priest. This act sprung j 
no doubt from enthusiastic religious feeling ; but from reli- 1 
gious feeling guided by passion or pride, and unchecked j 

by a watchful sober frame. Whatever its origin, I 

lowed zeal is it was ouc chicf causc of the temptations that j 

afterwards befell him. It awakened his own i 

: 

fears, and probably excited the ill will of the soldiers. 



§ 3. TRIAL AND CRUCIFIXION OF CHRIST. 25o 

37. Christ rebuked the zeal of His disciple, healed the 
wounded man, and gave Himself into their hands. *' Put 
up thy sword into its sheath," said the meek Sufferer : '' the 
cup which my Father has given me, shall I not drink it ?" 
Peter now felt that he had done wrong. As His guilty cow- 
this sudden explosion of impetuosity had no ^^^^^^' 
principle to sustain it, it was soon succeeded by cowardice. 
Seeing that Jesus offered no resistance, but suffered Him- 
self to be bound like a common criminal, Peter with the 
rest forsook him and fled. They who had said : ^' Though 
we die with Thee, we will not be offended," were now hiding 
themselves among the trees of the garden. Having secured 
their Prisoner, the guard retired from the garden. 

38. The glare of lanterns and torches soon grows dim in 
the distance. Gethsemane is again as still as when the 
disciples entered it. Peter gropes from his hiding-place. 
His alarm is subsiding, and he begins to reflect upon his 
conduct. His Master is on His way to the hall of the 
high priest, without, as far as he knows, a single friend. 
Is it curiosity that prompts him, or is he subdued by the 
recollection of his own previous vow and his Master's 
love ? From whatever cause, he turns his steps towards 
Jerusalem, and slowly follows the crowd that is bearing 
his Lord into the presence of the Sanhedrim. His motives, 
however, are not the purest. His decision is half-hearted 
and incomplete. It is therefore only afar off he follows ; 
and on gaining admission into the hall, he takes his place 
among the soldiers and servants, waiting at his leisure to 
see the end. The association is suspicious, and betrays a 
state of feeling ill suited to contend with the difficulties 
that are soon to surround him. 

39. The trial of the Son of God had already begun. He 
was asked concerning His disciples and doc- 

TT T /. 1 . -, The trial before 

trine ; He was accused oi threatening to de- the sanhedrim 
stroy the temple, but the evidence proved con- ^^^ ^^^^' 



256 CHAPTER V. 

tradictory. Having failed to elicit a confession, and to 
establish their charge, the high priest solemnly adjured 
Him, and asked pointedly ; '' Art thou the Christ, the Son 
of the Blessed?'' And Jesus said, ''lam. And here- 
after ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand 
of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. Then the 
high priest rent his clothes and said, what need we any 
further witnesses ? Ye have heard His blasphemy, what 
Christ is con- think ye ?" (Mark xiv. 61-64.) And they 
demned. condemned Him to be guilty of death. He 

was condemned, it will be observed, because He made 
Himself equal with God. 

40. He was now mocked and spit upon. The men who 

held Him blindfolded Him, struck Him on the 

Is mocked. 

face, and in ridicule of his claims to super- 
natural knowledge, cried out : ^' Prophesy unto us, thou 
Christ, who is he that smote thee." (Matt. xxvi. 68.) 

41. And was there none present to shield the Lamb of 
Peter's neu- ^^^ ^^^^ ^his iusult and pain ? Yes, th«re sat 
trahty. ^^^ ^^ jjjg c|jQsg^ apostlcs tamely beholding 

the whole of this outrage. A few hours before he had 
professed his readiness to lay down his life for His sake ; 
but now he dare not, or will not interpose. 

42. In this condition a more decisive trial awaits him. 
As the light of the fire shone upon his troubled counte- 
nance, and before the worst of these outrages had begun, 
a little maid coming up said, apparently without much in- 
tention: '' Thou also wast with Jesus of Nazareth." The 
word so fitly spoken roused his conscience and fears. He 
felt immediately the inconsistency of his position. He was 
looking on as an unconcerned spectator ; he had been silent 
when questions affecting his Redeemer's character had been 
discussed — questions which none was so qualified to answer 
as himself. To confess himself a disciple would be to 
plead guilty to ingratitude, and would probably have ex- 



§ 3. TRIAL AND CRUCIFIXION OF CHRIST. 257 

posed himself to personal danger. And yet he was not 
prepared to deny his Lord ; he takes shelter, therefore, in 
an equivocal answer, which was meant to be n-^^ equivoca- 
denial, but which seemed less awful than the *^^°' 
open avowed apostacy of which he was ultimately guilty : 
*' I know not,'' said he, '' what thou sayest." 

43. Fearing lest the charge should be repeated, he re- 
tired to the porch. The very chana-e, however, 

^ J & J y His denial. 

led to farther inquiry ; another servant met 
him with the same taunt : ^' This fellow was also with Jesus 
of Nazareth." He had now gone too far to recede. To 
acknowledge the fact would convict him both of ingra^ti- 
tude and of falsehood ; for every one understood his former 
answer as a positive denial. A simple affirmation, more- 
over, is not enough ; he therefore declares with an oath, 
*^ I know not the man." 

44. Again he enters the hall, and is once more in the 
immediate presence of Christ. The torment- his denial with 
ing accusation is again repeated, not by a maid ^*^^^- 
only, but by the whole company of the soldiers. One ex- 
claims, as the light of the fire falls upon Peter's face, *^ Did I 
not see thee with Him in the garden ?" and another, shrewdly 
noting his replies, adds, '^ Surely thou art a Galilean ; for 
thy speech betrayeth thee." Surrounded on all sides by 
the evidence of his guilt, agitated with fear and remorse, 
every unholy passion bursting forth with ungovernable 
power, he began to curse and to swear, saying, '^ I know 
not the man." And immediately the cock crew. 

45. During this whole scene the trial and mockery of 
Christ had continued. He, however, was marking the succes- 
sive steps of the apostacy of His servant, and was more 
deeply wounded by what He saw than by the treatment of 
the priests who condemned, or of the crowds who reviled 
Him. One look of mingled sorrow and love broke the heart 
of the faithless disciple, softened the hard brow, and sent 

22* 



258 CHAPTER y. 

him out weeping bitterly. It is not easy to tell which is the 
more instructive here — the fall of the apostle, or the ten- 
derness of his Lord, 

46. But we proceed with the main thread of the story. 

Caiaphas and the Sanhedrim had already con- 

Christ is ^ '^ 

brought before demued our Lord. In the dependent condi- 

Pilate, who . n ^ t • ^ • ^ 

finds no fault tiou of the Jcwish uatiou, howcvcr, they had 
no power to visit His alleged crime of blas- 
phemy with the punishment which, under their own law, it 
deserved ; they therefore took Him to the Roman governor. 
Pilate questioned Him, and affirmed that he found no fault 
in Him. But hearing that He had been in Galilee, under 
Herod's jurisdiction, and that Herod was then in Jerusa- 

Sends Him to ^^^> ^^ ^^^^ H™ ^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^ COUr- 

Herod. ^^gy agai^gt Christ, w^hich healed old feuds and 

made the two governors friends. 

47. Herod set Him at naught, and mocked Him ; in 
ridicule arrayed Him in ("ka^TCpav) the white royal robe of 
the Hebrews, and sent Him back to Pilate. (Luke xxiii. 
11.) Again Pilate expressed his conviction that Christ 

was innocent, and appealed to the people, 
appeals to the offering to rclcasc Him, or to chastise Him 

and let Him go. But the people and the chief 
priests cried, '' Away with Him ; not this Man, but Barab- 
bas ;" till at length Pilate, ^'fearing a tumult," complied 
with their request ; and, having scourged Him, ^' delivered 
Jesus to their power." (Luke xxiii. 25.) The crown of 
thorns and the imperial purple robe (xoxxlvrjv x'^afivda Ifxdnov 
Ttop^ppovv) were now put upon Him. Again He is spit 
Christ is again ^P^^ ^^^ smittcu ; and the soldiery, mocking 
mocked. Him, bowcd their knees and worshiped, say- 

ing, ''Hail, King of the Jews." 

48. While Christ was thus clothed in purple and crowned 
with thorns, Pilate a third time appealed to the people. 
''Behold, I bring Him forth to you," said he, "that ye 



§ 3. TRIAL AND CRUCIFIXION OF CHRIST. 259 

may know that I find no fault in Him. Behold the Man. 
But when the chief priest and the officers saw Him, they 
cried out, Crucify Him, crucify Him." Wea- After a third 
ried out with their importunity, and under the ed^oTeVto^be^' 
significant threat that if he let Him go, he was crucified, 
not Caesar's friend, Pilate yielded, and delivered Jesus 
unto them to be crucified. (John xix. 4-16.) 

49. The whole of the previous night had been spent in 
such toils and anguish as must have exhausted (.j^^ist sinks 
His strength. Our Lord had thrice traversed "^^^^ hiscross. 
the greater part of Jerusalem, and was therefore little 
qualified, physically at least, for the suffering that awaited 
Ilim. In carrying His cross to the place where He was 
to be crucified. He sunk under it. Another was pressed 
into this service, and at length they reach the place of exe- 
cution. 

Here they stripped Him; nailed Him to the wood; 
strong iron pins being driven through the is„aiiedtothe 
nerves and sinews of the hands and feet. As ^^°^^' 
these tortures began, some friendly hand, probably, offered 
Him a draught of the stupefying drink which criminals 
were wont to take on such occasions, a mixture of wine 
and bitter herbs ('' vinegar and gall," '^ wine and myrrh") ; 
but when He had tasted. He would not drink. (Matt, 
xxvii. 34.) In the fullest consciousness our Lord entered 
upon the last hours of His life. 

At nine in the morning He was nailed to the cross ; He 
was then lifted up, a thief on either hand ; and there He 
hung till three, mocked by the priests, cruelly tortured by 
offers of drink to quench His thirst, (Luke xxiii. 36,) railed 
at by one, at least, of the malefactors who suffered with 
Him, and deserted of God. At length, '^ between the 
evenings," at the time of the offering of the Paschal lamb, 
Christ our passover was sacrificed for us. He died literally 



260 CHAPTER V. 

of a broken heart ; His heart bursting asunder from the 
intensity of His responsibility and suffering. 
*' It is finished," were His last words ; ^' Father, 
into Thy hands I commend my spirit ;'' and, having said 
this, He gave up the ghost. (Luke xxiii. 46 ; John xix. 
30.)* 

51. Amid these sufferings, it was not of Himself that 
Christ's last ^^^ Lord was thinking. As He passed early 
di-essecTto ^^ *^^ momiug aloug the streets of the city^ 
OT^ utter^d^oS ^^^ beheld the crowds of women who followed 
their behalf. ^^^ bcwailcd Him, He turned to them and 
said, ^' Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me ; but weep 
for yourselves and for your children.'' (Luke xxiii. 28.) 
As they nailed Him to the cross, He remembered the fierce 
invocation upon themselves of His blood ; and He there- 
fore prayed : '^ Father, forgive them, for they know not 
what they do." As the weary hours wore on, one of the 
malefactors who were crucified with Him, after owning the 
justice of his own punishment, and vindicating the inno- 
cence of Christ, said unto Jesus : *^ Lord, remember me, 
when thou comest into thy kingdom ;" thus acknowledging 
His sovereignty and mercy. And Jesus said, ^'Verily 
I say unto thee, this day shalt thou be with me in Para- 
dise ;" asserting, in a practical form, the qualities which 
the penitent thief had acknowledged and owned. 

As life ebbed away, another scene, no less touching, was 
witnessed. There were standing by the cross His mother, 
His mother's sister, Mary, the wife of Cleophas, and Mary 
Magdalene. ^'When, therefore, Jesus saw His mother 
and the disciple standing by, whom He loved, (so John 
ever prefers to describe himself,) He saith unto His mother, 

* Dr. Stroud has shown, in an essay on the physical causes of the 
death of Christ, that He exhibited all the symptoms of the somewhat 
uncommon disease here named, and that nothing less could account for 
them. 



§ 4. CHRIST CRUCIFIED AFRESH. 261 

*' Woman, behold thy Son;" and then saith He to the 
disciple, ''Behold thy mother ;" and from that hour that 
disciple took her to his own home. (John xix. 25-2T.) 

Even, therefore, at Calvary, Christ thought of the weep- 
ing crowds that followed Him — of the guilt of 
the men who murdered Him — of the danger of even to the 
the thieves who were crucified with Him — and 
of His widowed and disconsolate mother, whom He was 
leaving behind. If His life was noble and beneficent, His 
death was divine. 

52. How characteristic and instructive, even in these 
scenes, are our Lord's last words, as recorded characteristics 
by the different evangelists I In Matthew and reclrds'^'^rms 
Mark we have the cry of conscious desertion : ^^^^ ^°^^^- 

*' My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ?" the cry 
of the smitten Lamb. In Luke it is the cry of a Son, still 
at the close dependent upon God as a Father, and sure of 
support and acceptance: ''Into thy hands I commend my 
spirit." In John it is the cry of one divinely conscious 
of himself, securing with His own hands the completion of 
His work ; " It is finished 1" 

Sect. 4. Christ crucified afresh — or, the feelings that 
actuated his murderers common to every age. 

53. The fact of the crucifixion of Christ stands as the 
centre of the Gospel. All the doctrines of Christianity 
cluster around it, and become distinct in the light it sheds 
upon them. It harmonizes and explains the justice and 
mercy of God, and is the key of all the insti- 
tutes and mysteries of the ancient law. As a a revelation of 

, ,. p, , T « ... human nature. 

revelation oi human nature and oi man, it is no 
less instructive. 

54. During His life, Christ had been known only as the 
benefactor of our race. He was ever ready to The holiness of 
give up His own comforts at the slightest wish ^^"^^-'^ li^®- 



262 CHAPTER y. 

of those round Him. His miraculous power, never exerted 
on His own behalf, was at the service of the liumblest peti- 
tioner. His benevolence was unwearying ; His sympathy 
with all that was lovely and harmless in man was perfect ; 
and the purity of His life was complete. He rebuked sin 
indeed, but He always pitied the sinner. He claimed to 
be the Messiah of prophecy, but this claim interfered with 
no temporal throne. For such a being to die a death of 
violence seems an outrage on some of our most cherished 
conceptions, both of the government of God and of the 
better nature of man. 

As this death was designed to atone for all guilt, nearly 

all 2:uilt combined to accomplish it. It ffa- 

nancy of the thcrcd tribute from every bad passion. It was 

passions that 

conspired cowardlcc that led the disciples of our Lord to 

against Him 

lead us to hope dcscrt Him ; it was covetousness that betrayed 

that the cruci- . . 

fixion is never Him ; it was pcrjury that bore lalse witness 
against Him ; it was envy that delivered Him 
up. Cruelty scourged and crowned Him with thorns. 
Popular fickleness chose Barabbas, and rejected Him; 
while, in the soldiers, coarse brutality buffeted and mocked 
Him. In contemplating these scenes, our first reflection 
is : ^^ never surely is man to repeat this wickedness. May 
we not hope that it will remain a crime without a parallel ; 
a sad, yet solitary monument, of human guilt.'' 

65. And yet, against this hope, it must be remembered, 
that the thing which has been is the thing also 
contrary is the that shall bc.'' Mankind repeat themselves 
from age to age ; each generation is the echo 
of its predecessors. Throughout all time, our besetting 
sins remain unchanged ; they have ever been worldliness 
and unbelief. With all the records that have come down 
to us, telling how our fathers fought and fell, we begin the 
divine life like children, and are vanquished by temptations 
which were old in the days of Abraham or of Paul. Add 



§ 4. CHRIST CRUCIFIED AFRESH. 263 

to the fact of this tendency, that in the early church were 
some who, after Christ had suffered, ''crucified him afresh, 
and put Him to an open shame ;'' and it becomes plain 
that this fearful catastrophe of the crucifixion ^, . ^ 

^ ^ Christ may be 

may be repeated. Men are still capable of crucified 
disowning and rejecting Christ. They have 
the power, and too often the disposition, to buffet and 
scourge Him — to crown and crucify Him. Nor was there 
a single act with which either the disciples, or the judges 
of our Lord, or the Jews generally, were chargeable, 
which may not be repeated, and is not repeated, even in 
our own day. 

56. Mark, for example, the conduct and bearing of the 
favored disciples of our Lord amid those scenes. ^^ ^^^^ ^j^o 
Peter, as we have seen, deserted and denied duct of "thHis- 
Him. Judas, another of His disciples, de- ^^p^^^- 
praved by paltry hope of gain, or, at the very best, by 
impatient unbelief, sold Him. ''What will ye give me,'^ 
said he to the Pharisees, "and I will deliver Him unto 
you ?" and, for thirty pieces of silver, he betrayed to death 
one who had been his best friend, and whose innocence he 
himself attested. Among the bitterest of the ingredients 
of the cup which He had to drink was this fickleness and 
desertion. Two of their number at least, Peter and John, 
had heard their master accused, and had uttered no word 
of defence ; they had quietly looked on while He was 
smitten and mocked, and attempted neither to succor nor 
to console Him. They might have vindicated His charac- 
ter, even if they could not have obtained His release. One 
of them, the boldest, had denied, in the presence of the 
multitude, that he ever knew Him ; a statement wliicli 
those who heard it knew to be false. If this was the cha- 
racter of the disciple, they might have reasoned, what can 
the character of the Master be ? Whence comes the teach- 
ing that produces such results ? This conduct had doubt- 



264 CHAPTER y. 

less wounded the Lamb of God more deeply than the treat- 
ment of His foes ; and this wounding He received in the 
house of His friends ! 

Alas ! for ns, Peter and Judas still live ; and it may 
be safely affirmed, that Christ is seldom treated in His 
truth or in His followers with insult and wrong, but there 
are professed disciples who contribute to this treatment, 
who desert Him in the presence of His enemies, or who 
are ready to give him up into their hands. 

5Y. But let us look again at this scene, and at the con- 
duct of the judges of Christ. Among the 

By others who . . n ^ t - * ^ 

copy the con- most mstructivc parts of the history is the 
judges of record of the wavering, timorous Pilate. As 

Roman governor, he no doubt held in his 
hands the power of life and death. He believed Christ 

to be guiltless, and was willing to save Him. 

He appeared anxious to do right, so long 
as His virtue cost him nothing ; and yet, in the end, pre- 
ferred ease and influence to conscience. 

And is not Pilate living still ? Are there not now many 
who would be models of piety, if their piety did not dis- 
turb their tenure of wealth and station ; who would save 
the Son of God from degradation, if they were not appre- 
hensive that in the task they might degrade themselves ; 
who ''find no fault in Him," and would therefore ''let 
Him go ;" and yet, if the crowd threaten a tumult, or the 
powerful hint that such conduct bespeaks a man no friend 
of Caesar's, hand over the Lord to His foes, and consign 
Him and His cause even to the cross ? 

Not very different was the course taken by the chief 
TheSanhe- rulcrs. '* Amoug the chief rulers," says John^ 
drim. u jYiany believed Him, but because of the Pha- 

risees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put 
out of the synagogue ; for they loved the praise of men 
more than the praise of God." (eTohu xii. 42.) They were 



§ 4. CHRIST CRUCIFIED AFRESH. 265 

members of the Sanhedrim, and they had a voice in its 
deliberations ; they were present, probably, when our Lord 
was condemned, and they either joined in the cry, ^' He is 
guilty of death,'' or they silently acquiesced in it ; for the 
sentence seems to have been passed without a dissentient 
voice. 

It cannot be affirmed that the rulers were peculiar in 
yielding to this fear of men. False shame operated in all 
ranks, as we may learn from the case of the parents of the 
man who was born blind ; but it is said to have operated 
chiefly among the higher classes — an instructive fact. (John 
V. 14.) How many are there now with whom the verdict 
of men outweighs every other consideration ; and who are 
ever ready to sacrifice their convictions to their position ? 
In heathen countries this influence deters the true disciple 
from Christian profession itself; and in countries avowedly 
Christian it acts yet more insidiously, that it is not open 
disavowal of Christ at which it aims, but secret neglect. 
The world seldom asks us formally to disown the Gospel, 
but only to forget it. Act as if principles were false and 
error true ; you may then leave it to others to repudiate 
the principles you hold, and to defend the error upon 
which you act. The world may thus gain all it seeks ; and 
men fall into the* sin of the chief rulers, and do their part 
to crucify the Son of God afresh, without giving up one 
outward badge of Christian discipleship. 

There is one more fact connected with the decision of 
the judges, no less striking. Christ was con- rj.^^^^ ^^^ 
demned on the charge of blasphemy. The vh^^^four 
evidence which was first adduced against Him ^^^^• 
having broken down. He was then asked the question : 
*' Art thou the Son of God ?'' and He replied in the appro- 
priate idiom of the language He spoke, '^ Thou hast said ;'' 
I. e. " I am." Then said the judges : ^' Ye have heard his 
blasphemy, what think ye?" and they answered, ^'He is 

23 



266 CHAPTER V. 

guilty of death. '^ (Matt. xxvi. 63.) Nor did He, when 
brought before Pilate, deny the character which He thus 
claimed; and on the charge of ^'making Himself equal 
with God/^ to use the language of the other Evangelist, 
His judges condemned Him. Is it not a startling fact, 
that there are those in our own time who say that Christ 
was not the Son of God in any true sense ; who maintain 
that it is blasphemy to ascribe this title to Him in any 
other sense than as it belongs to all revealers and inter- 
preters of the Divine will ? 

, If Christ were not the Son of God, He deceived the 
people. But if He was the Son of God, then those who 
would withhold that title, who affirm that either He never 
used it with a deep full meaning, or that if He did so use 
it. He used it wrongfully, really express their readiness to 
join in the decision of the Sanhedrim, ''We have heard 
His blasphemy; He is guilty of death. '^ To deny His 
sonship is to concur in the sentence ; for it is to charge 
Him either with blasphemy or with deception. And, in 
either case, if guilty, He was justly condemned. 

5t. But let us mark the conduct, not of the rulers only 
but of the Jews themselves, as they gathered ^^ ^-^^^^^ ^^^ 
around the cross. Christ was evidently a du^ct of the '^" 
favorite with them. His kindly bearing, His p^^p^^- 
unwearied beneficence, perhaps the mystery that lent 
dignity to his life, seem to have caught and pleased the 
popular mind. More than once it is said that the great 
obstacle to the success of the plans of the Pharisees was, 
that ''they feared the people.^' It is certain, moreover, 
that with such a governor as Pilate, any outburst of popu- 
lar feeling would have delayed, even if it had not pre- 
vented, the crucifixion. And yet how impressive is their 
silence. The poor sufferer carries His cross till He faints 
under it. The crowd follow, and watch Him till the person 
of our Lord is nailed to it. The cross is lifted up in the 



§ 4. CHRIST CRUCIFIED AFRESH. 267 

air, and shook down into its socket among the holes of Cal- 
vary. Thousands, probably, of that crowd had witnessed 
His miracles, and very many of them had shared in the 
gifts of His bounty. Not a week before they had thronged 
His steps as he entered their city, and had swelled the cry 
— '' Hosanna 1 Blessed is He that cometh in the name of 
the Lordl" but now, though looking with eager gaze, they 
utter no sounds but of taunting curiosity, or of gross igno- 
rance. ^' Let us see if Elias will come and save 
Him." To the very end, amid all the horrors acquiescence 
of the actual sufferings of our Lord, they pre- 
served the spirit they had manifested at the beginning, 
when they fearlessly invoked His blood upon themselves 
and upon their children. 

Aiid are there not such among the people still ? They 
honor Christ so long as He coufers easy blessings ; ex- 
press boundless admiration of His Gospel ; speak glow- 
ingly of the dignified simplicity of His character, of the 
beauty of His precepts ; and can contrast with these qua- 
lities the conduct of some who profess, and, alas ! only pro- 
fess, to be his disciples. But let him contradict their 
prejudices, or seek to enforce practical holiness, and they 
blindly follow their guilty guides, disown the truths they 
once admired, and persecute the cause they seemed to 
love I 

*But surely,' it will be said, * human nature has not 
sunk to the level of Jewish degradation. Men j^ ^^^^j. ^^y 
no longer prefer the thief and the murderer ^^^ i^a^abbas. 
to the noble and virtuous Nazarene.' Not sunk to this 
depth of degradation ! Who, then, are the darling idols 
of worldly applause ? Whom do men follow, and with 
whom do they most associate ? Is the heroic character, or 
the patient and teachable, the favorite with the people ? 
Put on one side the Barabbases of history, the men who 
have gained influence and wealth (by whatever means), and 



268 CHAPTER V. 

who have those gifts to distribute ; and, on the other, tne 
self-denial, the meekness, and the suffering of the cross. 
Bid men take their sides ; and how many will linger with 
Christ, '' deeming His reproach greater riches than the 
treasures of Egypt ?" What the Jews did is done still. 
Multitudes act in accordance with their decision ; and if 
they were compelled to speak they would join the cry, ''If 
we must choose — not this man, but Barabbas." 

' But, at least,' it will be said, * even if this were their cry, 
it would be consistent and open. Men do not 
ery^ofChrisT^" add iusult to injury. None now put on Him 
the scarlet robe, or the crown of thorns. None 
bow the knee in derision of His claims.' It may be hoped 
not. And yet how many of us have confessed guilt which 
we did not feel I How often have we joined in public 
prayer while our hearts were unconscious of the submission 
which our knees expressed! For how many mercies 
have we presented thanksgivings, though receiving them 
as our right, and wasting them on our lusts I And does 
this conduct differ from the sin of the soldiers, who called 
Him king, and despised the royalty they ascribed ; or can 
we hope that the mocking reverence which shocks so much 
when offered to Him when He was poor, Avill appear less 
guilty when offered to Him now that He is exalted ! 

58. If we look, then, beneath the outward acts of human 
All classes couduct to the hidden principles from which 
guilty. ^]^gy spring, it will be found that the guilt of 

crucifying the Lord is oft repeated — by avowed disciples, 
who desert and deny, and would even sell Him, and with 
Him every principle of conscience ; by men of rank and 
wealth, who would aid His cause, but they fear a tumult 
or think that to identify themselves too closely with 
Christ might compromise them with the world ; by those 
who believe but do not confess ; who admit Him to have 
been a good man, but deem it blasphemy to regard Him as 



§ 5. CHRIST THE PROPITIATION. 269 

more ; by the people, whose fickle admiration ends when they 
feel the pressure of the morality of His Gospel, and the self- 
denying character of the Christian life ; and by those who 
in every age have preferred the specious to the real, or 
who have mocked with empty lip-service that Divine King 
who is satisfied with nothing less than the homage of the 
heart I 

59. But this event of the crucifixion throws light upon 
other facts. It is the revelation of Man. It shows what 
he has done and what he is. It is also Thecrud- 
the revelation of God. It sets forth his char- Son o/Go7al^ 
acter in forms and colors more distinct than ^^eiiasofMan. 
are to be seen in creation. And to the study of this aspect 
of the cross we now proceed. 

Sect. 5. — Christ the Propitiation. 

60. Man is created under law. That law is not an ar- 
bitrary institution ; it is the embodiment of principles ne- 
cessary to the happiness of intelligent beings. ^^ g^ju-y 

It has its origin not in the sovereignty of God, ^y r^^um^ 
but in his character. Love to himself and to Possible. 
our neighbor is the sum of its requirements ; requirements 
which it is impossible to conceive of otherwise than as ex- 
tended throughout the moral universe of God. 

Sin is the transgression of law, and all men are sinners. 
''The whole world lieth in wickedness." ''All have gone 
astray." ''There is not a just man upon earth that sin- 
neth not." "If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves, 
and the truth is not in us." (1 John v. 19; Ps. xiv. 3; 
Ecc. vii. 20 ; 1 John i. 8.) No language can be more clear 
or decisive ; and the purpose for which it is used is de- 
clared to be, "that every mouth may be stopped, and all 
the world become guilty before God." (Rom. iii. 19.) 
Justification by right therefore, that is, freedom from guilt 
and punishment on the ground of innocence, is impossible. 

23* 



2T0 CHAPTER V. 

The simple statement of our true condition leads by one 
step to this result. 

61. But after a man has been pronounced guilty by 
May man be ^^^j ^^' ^^ possiblc to arrcst the consequcuces 
ieaso^n^in^^him- ^^ ^^^ S^i^^ J ^^ ^^J ^Q forgweu. Rcasous may 
ten^^?efo?ma- ^^ fouud in Mmself, or in another, to justify 
*^^"- the interference on his behalf of the supreme 
power. Mercy may be extended to him as the reward of 
previous good conduct ; as a consequence of his penitence, 
or of his promise of amendment ; or as an answer to his 
humble and earnest appeals to the government. In cases 
where the crime is trivial, or the propriety of the law is 
doubted, or the evidence is unsatisfactory, such pleas are 
sometimes admitted ; the penalty due to transgression is not 
inflicted, and the man who is himself guilty, is nevertheless 
treated as innocent. May we not expect pardon, if it is 
asked on similar grounds, at the hands of our Creator ? 

62. A thousand voices give a ready and affirmative 
How answered "^^V^J- '' ^7 SOU ackuowlcdgcs his fault, aud I 
by many. forgivc him. Am I better than the great 
Father of all ! Are not the yearnings of my heart in 
such a case a faint image of the yearnings of His ? His 
tender mercies are over all His works ; and He is ever ready 
to forgive." 

63. He is : our forgiveness is the result of His mercy ; 
The true an- ^^^ 1^^ neither penitence nor mercy is properly 
swer. ^^^ ground of forgiveness. Keeping in view 
the case of a pardoned criminal, it must be remembered 
(in contrast with it) that our sins against God are not 
trivial. They are capital ; subversive of all authority, 
and in violation of all law. Our guilt is not questioned. 
How byanaio Wc havc douc cvll from our youth up, and are 
ture^^/th'e'' ''^' J^^tly chargcablc with ten thousand transgres- 
case. sions. The law we have broken is righteous 
and beneficent, eternal and immutable. The penalties it 



§ 5. CHRIST THE PROPITIATION. 211 

inflicts are involved in a great degree in transgression it 
self; punishment being but the unavoidable perpetuation 
of sin, and requiring for the removal or prevention of i1 
miraculous interposition. God, moreover, is not only pa- 
rent of His creatures, He is judge, and has to discharge 
official functions ; and these cannot be neglected without 
injury to His character and the very foundations of His 
government. 

In perfect accordance with these views are the convic- 
tions of human nature as expressed in the re- 
ligious rites of all nations. Those rites imply and hnman 
a state not of innocence, but of guilt. They 
include sacrifice and suffering as grounds of forgiveness ; 
and clearly teach that the heart of man, when not misled 
by a false philosophy, has an instinctive consciousness that 
something else is required for pardon besides penitence. 
History confirms these impressions by presenting a thou- 
sand examples, in which it is evident that guilt is not can- 
celled by sorrow, however profound, or by promises of 
amendment, however sincere. 

64. But let us turn to the Bible. Having broken the 
law, whence comes, according to its teaching, our hope of 
forgiveness — from ourselves or from another ? jj^^ answered 
Is pardon suspended there on man's virtues i» Scripture. 
and penitence, or on something else ? And again a thou- 
sand voices will reply : repentance and sincerity are con- 
stantly spoken of as the pre-requisites of par- Repentance 
don. ''Let the wicked forsake his way, and ^^^^«<i- 
the unrighteous man his thoughts ; and let him return unto 
the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him, and unto 
our God, for He will abundantly pardon. '^ ''If we con- 
fess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our 
sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. '^ " The 
sacrifices of God are a broken spirit : . a broken and a con- 
trite heart, thou wilt not despise. '^ (Is. Iv. t ; 1 John i. 9 ; 



212 CHAPTER V. 

Pe. li. 11.) And, it will be added, the very precepts of 
our Lord we have already considered point to the same 
results. No true penitent is ever condemned. 

These passages we joyfully admit. They form an im- 
portant part of the gospel ; but only a part. To regard 
them as teachinsi: that repentance is alone ne- 

But not the , . . , n p r. . 

meritorious ccssary, or that it IS the ground oi lorgiveness, 

C3.US6 

is a fearful abuse, and subversive both of re- 
pentance and of holiness. For if this view be sound, we 
If so what ^^^Q several consequences. It then follows 
then? ^]^g^^ |-|jg lo^^ jg changed, both its denunciations 

and precepts. It tells us that ^' death'' is the ^Svages," 
t. e., the just desert ^'of sin;" but to maintain that re- 
pented sin, being cancelled, has no such desert, is clearly 
to limit and even to contradict this principle. To those 
under law it affirms that ^' he that doeth these things shall 
live by them ;" but now others besides may live ; not only 
those who do them, but those also who repent of their mis- 
doings. 

Does it not follow also, if this reasoning be admitted, 
that God himself is changed ? He can clearly cherish no 
abhorrence of sin as sin, but only of sin as unrepented. The 
innocent and the penitent-guilty are alike in His sight. 
Sin wept over is annihilated and forgotten. 

Nor can it be deemed a refinement of reasoning to main- 
tain, that if repentance is a meritorious ground of pardon, 
repentance itself is impossible. True repentance is hatred 
of sin as such ; but on this reasoning sin as such is not 
hateful, but only the sin which is not the subject of peni- 
tence. But if sin is not of itself wrong, but only sin un- 
repented of, it follows that men can repent only of their 
impenitence. But impenitence itself is not wrong if 
cherished in relation to what is not wrong. So that both 
sin and penitence are destroyed. Sin has no existence 



§ 5. CHRIST THE PROPITIATION. 2^3 

without impenitence ; and impenitence can involve no guilt, 
nor penitence have existence, where there is no sin. 

To maintain therefore, as is the tendency of our nature, 
that repentance cancels sin by some mysterious influence 
of its own, is to subvert the very foundation of morals. 
Such a view overturns the first principles of holiness. If 
the law is just, it is just that it should be enforced. To 
confess that it is just does not destroy its justness, and to 
acknowledge that we deserve to die cannot alter our de- 
serts. ^' Therefore by the deeds of the law can no flesh 
living be justified ; for by the law is the knowledge of sin.'^ 

May it not be added that if repentance were the ground 
of forgiveness, our state would be but little alleviated by 
the knowledge of such a truth. Kepentance is the hatred 
of sin, and the practice of holiness. Even if these only 
be the terms on which salvation is offered to our race, are 
we prepared to fulfill them ? And if we need even for re- 
pentance Divine help, whence, and on what grounds, is 
that help to be obtained ? 

65. The conclusions to which reason and law thus lead 
are confirmed by the express teachings of Scrip- 

. , . Scripture 

ture. That repentance is necessary to salvation teaching on the 
we have seen. That it is not the only thing 
necessary, nor in any sense the meritorious ground of it, 
are conclusions drawn from the fact that salvation is al- 
ways ascribed in Scripture to something else ; and from 
the further fact that nothing man does can m an^/ de- 
gree deserve pardon. ^'Without shedding of blood there 
is no remission." ''If ye believe not that I am He, ye 
shall die in your sins." ''The Son of Man came to give 
His life a ransom for many." (Heb. ix. 22; John viii. 
24 ; Mark x. 45.) " This is my blood shed for many for 
the remission of sins." " God so loved the world, that He 
gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in 
Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." " Christ 



214 CHAPTER V. 

hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a 
curse for us." ^' And in Him we have redemption through 
His blood, even the forgiveness of our sins, according to 
the riches of his grace." (Matt. xxvi. 28; John iii. 16; 
Gal. iii. 13 ; Eph. i. 1 ; Col. i. 14.) Whatever the full 
meaning of these statements is, they imply that more than 
penitence is required for salvation, and that it is not to 
penitence as a ground or meritorious cause that our salva- 
tion is ascribed. 

Further, it must be noticed, that the insufficiency of all 
On salvation persoual acts to dcscrvc pardon is stated in 
i)y grace. Scripturc to bc absolutc. It is an insufficiency 

in kind^ not in degree. The teaching of the Bible is not 
that with Christ they will together secure the blessing, as 
if all contributed to the result ; but that the effective in- 
fluence belongs to Christ alone ; and that our acts, whether 
of activity or of emotion, are demanded for other purposes. 
This is the doctrine of the Epistle to the Romans ; in 
which it is repeatedly affirmed, that our salvation is the re- 
sult of a reception of Christ, or of faith in Him, inde- 
pendently of works, whether of simple obedience, or of 
penitential reformation. ** We are justified by faith with- 
out the deeds of law." '^ It is of faith that it might be of 
grace." ^'Christ is made unto us redemption; and in 
Ifim we have redemption through His blood, even the for- 
giveness of our sins." ^^We are justified freely by His 
grace, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus." 
''He hath made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, 
that we might be made the righteousness of God (righteous 
in the sight of God) in Him." (Rom. iii. 28; Rom. iv. 
16; 1 Cor. i. 30; Eph. i. 1 ; Rom. iii. 24; 2 Cor. v. 21.) 
And that nothing in man can efficiently contribute to the 
result, is made plain by the general conclusion reiterated 
elsewhere — one purpose indeed of the whole arrangement. 



§ 5. CHRIST THE PROPITIATION. 2t5 

''He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." (1 Cor. i. 
31 ; 2 Cor. x. 11.) 

66. Pardon, therefore, it seems, is the result of Christ's 
death — and of Christ's death alone. Repent- g^^ the propi- 
ance, and other personal acts, have no power ^'^^^st *^Peni- 
to obtain it : they are but the conditions or thr^condiSon^ 
qualifications, on which His death is made con^s avau-^''* 
available for sinners. ^^^^• 

6T. But how J it may now be asked, is the death of Christ 
the ground of our iustification ? All the reasons 

.,..,.,, /^ -,. ^,. , .^ . The death of 

that weigh with Grod m this arrangement it is Christ the 
impossible for us to know ; but such as are re- justification. 
vealed may be examined, and they cannot fail 
to be examined as themes of the deepest interest. 

From what has been already said, it is clear that God's 
government is a government according to law ; perfections of 
He has himself both official functions and a ^ip^esTf^hi^^lo" 
personal character ; sin is a grave and fearful ^emment. 
offence against Him. Therefore, however compassionate 
God may be towards the sinner, the arbitrary exercise of 
prerogative in remitting sin is impossible, because incon- 
sistent with holiness. And while these are principles in 
relation to this question which spring, so to speak, out of 
the very nature of the Divine government, there are facts 
no less important, resting on experience. Men are sinners ; 
and, as such, are exposed to the punishment connected with 
disobedience. The infliction of punishment, however, is, 
in a great degree, suspended. In the mean time an extra- 
ordinary measure has been introduced into the world by 
God himself. This measure provides a valid ground for 
the bestowment of pardon ; and is nothing less than the 
sacrifice and death of His Son. The following passages 
place these facts in the clearest light. '' The blood of 
Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin." ''God 
sent forth his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and 



2Y6 CHAPTER V. 

for sin." ''He who knew no sin was made sin for us." 
" Sacrifice and offering" (the ritual appointments of the 
law) ''thon wouldest not; but a body hast thou prepared 
me. Lo ! I come to do thy will, God." (1 John i. 1 ; 
Kom. viii. 3 ; 2 Cor. v. 21 ; Heb. x.) Here a simple- 
minded believer might pause ; and, believing these truths, 
be saved. The death of the Messiah is recognized in all 
these passages, and in many others, as the ground or con- 
sideration, on account of which pardon is revealed and be- 
stowed on man. God must punish, is the first truth. 
Through Christ punishment is suspended or remitted, is 
the second. 

68. But Scripture goes still farther. It not only tells 
The truth ex- ^^ what coustitutcs the grouud of pardon ; it 
plained. ^^^^ explains to some extent how it is so. It 

gives undoubted intimations respecting the design, the ne- 
cessity, and the nature of the appointment ; the properties 
which impart to it its power with God, and with man. It 
tells us, for example, that the scheme itself originated in 
the love of the Father, and was, moreover, intended to 
illustrate His holiness. " God so loved the world, that He 
sent His Son" to reconcile it to Himself. God hath ''set 
forth His Son a propitiation for sin, to declare, or display 
His righteousness ; that He might be just, and the justi- 
fier of him that believeth in Jesus." (Rom. iii. 25.) 

The influence of this act upon God's government is also 
„. , revealed. " Christ hath redeemed us from the 

HjS death 5?atis- 

fies justice and cuTsc of the law, bclug made a curse for us -/^ 

reveals mercy. 

"He died th« just for the unjust ;" Christ gave 
" Himself a ransom for us." 

That God regarded His death as a sufficient reason why 
Thus glorify- ^^^ who bcHeve in Him should be forgiven, is 
condiights"" equally plain. Because He laid down His life, 
h?s officii reia- ^^^ Father gave him power to give eternal life 
^^^^- to as many as God had given Him. Through 



§ 5. CHRIST THE PROPITIATION-. 2Yt 

His dignity and innocence ^'He bare our sins (not His 
own) in His own body on the tree ;" ^^ He became obedient 
unto death ;'' and, therefore, '' God also hath highly exalted 
Him, and given Him a name above every name.'' (Phil, 
ii. 8.) ^' If the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of 
an heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctify to the purifying 
of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, 
who, through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself without 
spot to God, purge our conscience from dead works ?" 
(Heb. ix. 18) — from the burden and the condemnation of 
works which end in death. 

The conclusion, therefore, is, that in Christ and His 
obedience unto death God beholds an adequate reason for 
the exercise of mercy. There the rectitude of the Judge 
and the love of the Father are equally displayed. His 
people, accepted in the Beloved, have the punishment of 
their sins cancelled. They are judicially placed in the 
condition and character of personal virtue. They become 
objects both of complacency and affection. 
God looks on Christ, and He sees in Him the both look to the 

cross 

ground of forgiveness. They look on Christ, 
and are justified through faith, which faith is itself an in- 
strument of holiness. Heaven and earth, God and man, 
are thus alike influenced by the cross. 

69. Every part of this scheme, it must be added, '^ is 
witnessed by the law and the prophets." 
Throughout the whole of revelation, God is witnessed by 
everywhere presented as the moral Governor 
of man.. For thousands of years he appears teaching the 
great truth of His own righteous demands, and of man's 
inability to meet them. 

The Bible is a record of God's requirements on the one 
hand, and of man's incompetency on the other. The con- 
nection of sin with punishment is everywhere asserted; 

24 



2T8 CHAPTER V. 

and more than this, the doctrine of the transference of 
punishment is repeatedly and forcibly revealed. Reason 
concurs in these lessons. The experience of common life 
sustains them ; and thus all lend their evidence to confirm 
what becomes to us glad tidings of great joy — a message 
of wrath blended with a message of love ; tidings happily 
as universal in their announcement and adaptation as is 
the disease they are intended to heal. 

10. The terms in which the various aspects of this great 
In what terms ^^^^ ^^^ described are all significant. The 
described. death of Christ is called a propitiation^ for it 

makes it possible for God to receive sinners into favor, and 
prompts to the exercise of mercy in a way consistent with 
the claims of justice. It is called an expiation^ for it 
covers sin, and provides for the removal of guilt and con- 
sequent punishment. It is an atonement^ both expiating 
and propitiating, while it brings into friendship those who 
were once opposed. It is vicarious or substitutional, 
being endured in our stead. And it is satisfactory, for it 
vindicates the broken law, answers all the moral purposes 
of punishing the trangressors, and is deemed by the Law- 
giver himself to be a sufficient reason for pardoning all 
who believe. Its first fruit i^ forgiveness smd peace — com- 
placency on God's part, and confidence on ours ; its ultimate 
fraits, redemption and salvation — that is, actual freedom from 
sin in its guilt, power, and misery, and in the end eternal 
life : redemption differing from salvation only in suggesting 
the price paid for these gifts. In part they are already 
enjoyed, but in their fullness they are yet to come. 

71. We must not go farther on this question than Scrip- 
The Divinity of ^^^^ guidcs US ; but it is impossible to over- 
fn IbV^'effiilcy l^^^ thc fact, that if the Being who suffered 
of this sacrifice, ^^^ penalty of human guilt be not He whose 
justice demanded the sacrifice, our notions of satisfaction 



I 



§ 5. CHRIST THE PROPITIATION. 2*19 

are all confounded ; and the atonement not only leaves the 
attributes of justice and love unreconciled, but it does ab- 
solute violence to both. 

If our Lord were man only, then we have the law of God 
satisfied, and even honored, by the sufferings else no merit in 
of One who Himself owed to that law all the ^'' suffering. 
obedience He could give. There could in that case have 
been no merit in His humiliation ; none in His submission ; 
none in His obedience ; and (inasmuch as the law of God 
requires us to give up our lives for the brethren) none in 
His death. And to all created intelligences will this rea- 
soning apply ; to all, in fact, except to that one Being who 
owes no duty but to Himself. To Christ it does not 
apply, because He was at once the Great God and our Sa- 
viour — -the Child and the Everlasting Father — Jehovah- 
man ! 

Nor is it easier, if the divinity of our Lord be denied, to 
reconcile the attributes of God's character. 

. . . , . . . And no revela- 

W hat infinite justice is there m placing the tion of the di- 

T , n t , • "^i^6 character. 

penalty of human transgression upon one 
totally distinct from the Lawgiver, an inferior and inno- 
cent ? What infinite love in accepting the endurance of 
pain, which was, after all, no satisfaction ? And if it be 
maintained that the infinite love was in Christ, and the 
infinite holiness in Him, then it follows that the merit of 
our redemption is practically transferred from Jehovah to 
the man who achieved it ; leaving the blessed God Him- 
self to be outdone by His own creature in the manifestation 
of His noblest perfections, and in the very dispensation 
intended to display them ! Admit the Scriptural scheme, 
and all is consistent. The love and holiness on the part 
both of God and of Christ are infinite ; yet there is no fear 
of idolatry, though men ^^ honor the Son even as they honor 
the Father !'^ 



280 CHAPTER V. 

12. This great fact of the life of our Lord, ending in His 

death, may be variously regarded. On the 
enceofthe side towards God it is the instrument of our 

justification. By His obedience many are 
made righteous. We are justified by His blood — we are 
reconciled by His death. On the side towards men it is 
the instrument of jour holiness. With both God and man 
it is omnipotent, containing every element of power ; in 
itself, adapted to stir to its utmost depth all human feeling, 
and appointed by God as a reason on account of which 
the influences of His Holy Spirit may be infused into all 
hearts. ''He has received gifts for men," even ''the pro- 
mise of the Holy Ghost.'' (Ps. Ixviii. 18; Acts ii. 33.) 
His is" a name above every name, that every knee should 
bow, and every tongue confess, to the glory of God the 
Father." 

But the fact that the death of Christ is adapted to have 
power with men claims additional illustration. 

13. At first sight His obedience unto death may seem to 

embody neither wisdom nor power. The Jew 
over natural dccmcd it uot ouly powcrlcss and inanimate, 
^^ ^°^' but a weakness and an ojffence. The Greek 

called it foolishness. (1 Cor. i. 23.) In the event of the 
crucifixion, Christ is no doubt exhibited in His deepest 
humiliation. As He passed from the hall of judgment to 
the hill of Calvary, He seemed a common criminal ; His 
brow still marked with the thorns, and His face swollen 
with the agony of the previous night and the blows of the 
soldiery. When He reached the spot where they meant to 
crucify Him, He appeared as one of the poorest and most 
friendless of men. Amid shouts and taunts He was lifted 
up. Others are crucified with Him. To the eye of man 
all are abject, and He most abject of all. 

" There are not wanting, however, even amid those in- 
dications of weakness, mysterious tokens of a Divine pre- 



§ 5. CHRIST THE PROPITIATION. 281 

sence, and of the solemn significance of His death. Tlie 
earth, and the skj, and the temple, fit representations of all 
created and divine things, are moved at the scene. Angels 
that excel in strength are watching the sufferer with reve- 
rent interest. That victim, seemingly disowned by earlli 
and heaven, and therefore suspended between them, is our 
Maker. In that meek and lowly form is veiled the incar- 
nate God. Angels that smote a camp, and destroyed the 
first-born of a nation in a night, have worshiped Him. 
His very enemies, who put Him to death, and who have 
often watched Him in His acts and speech, can bring 
against Him no consistent or intelligible accusation. His 
judges ^ find no fault in Him.' There, amid the scoffs of 
His murderers, dies the only One of Adam's race that knew 
no sin. A life of unequalled beneficence is consummated 
by a death of violence and anguish, itself an expression of 
the noblest beneficence. Thus viewed, elements of gran- 
deur and tenderness, of loftiest splendor and the lowliest 
condescension, all blend in that dread sacrifice. Do men 
look with interest on greatness in misery ? It is here : The 
King of Glory despised and rejected of men ! Are they 
touched with sympathy for distress ? How deep must have 
been His anguish, when even His patient spirit cried out, 
'My God, my God ! why hast Thou forsaken me?' — and 
rejoiced when He was able to say, ^ It is finished ?' Do 
they need, in order to feel most deeply, to have some con- 
nection with the sufferer ? They have a suspicion that, 
somehow or other, the case might have been their own. 
It is the man Christ Jesus who dies, and dies in the stead 
of men. Should wisdom attract ? Here was the great 
Teacher Himself, speaking as man never spoke, giving les- 
sons even from the cross ! The God-man, of whom Plato 
had glimpses, is here dying ignominiously, an example of 
perfect innocence, and enduring the treatment due to con- 
summate wickedness ! Are men strongly affected by what 

24* 



282 • CHAPTER V. 

they know as affecting others ? This sacrifice stirs all 
worlds — hell is losing its prey — heaven is stooping to be- 
hold its King incarnate and dying, that He may recover to 
His allegiance a lost province of His empire, indulging 
His mercy and satisfying His justice, whilst His last 
breath magnifies His law and proclaims His Gospel.^'* 
Looking through ^history, it appears that this scene has 
influenced the noblest of our race, and has prompted to 
deeds of unparalleled devotedness. Children have felt its 
power, without being repelled by the mystery. The 
mightiest intellects have studied it, without grasping its 
vastness. Those living by faith in it have become par- 
takers of a Divine nature ; the world has become crucified 
to them, and they to the world. No earthly terrors could 
appal, no earthly charms could allure them. The very 
miracles of the life of our Lord wrought upon the bodies 
of men, seem to be but faint types of the mightier miracles 
wrought through the Spirit in their souls by this miracle 
of grace. 

If we look more deeply into this power, we shall find 
that it has elements of even a nobler kind. 

74. Human life is made up in a large measure of sin 
and sufferinsr. The first shows us our a^uilt, 

Infiuence over ^ , cj / 

religious emo- and the second our helplessness. Guilt leads 

tions. 

US to view God with distrust, and suffering 
makes it needful that we should have a Friend who can 
show us how to suffer, and give us, at the same time, an 
assurance of sympathy and relief. No religious system 
that fails to provide for these necessities of our condition 
can have a permanent hold upon the human heart. The 

'■' Abridged from Dr. Williams's Lecture on '^ The Crdss the Conser- 
vative Principle of our Literature." Some of the following thoughts 
will be found expanded and illustrated with great beauty in the same 

address. 



§ 5. CHRIST THE PROPITIATION. 283 

provision supplied in this respect by the Gospel is identified 
with the cross. 

Conscious of our guilt, and judging God by ourselves, 
it is hard to believe that He is ready to be 
*' pacified towards us for all our abominations." 
(Ezek. xvi. 62.) Till this is believed we cannot love Him. 
It is confidence only that brings man back to God. This 
is the true principle of our recovery. But what is so 
adapted to produce this confidence as the death of Christ ? 
He appears as ''the way, and the truth, and the life.'^ 
Herein God " commendeth His love to us, that while we 
were yet sinners Christ died for the ungodly.'^ (Rom. v. 8.) 
The reasoning is irresistible: ''He that spared not His 
own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how shall He not 
with Him also freely give us all things." (Rom. viii. 32.) 

But still, though God is thus shown to be love, He is 
felt to be infinitely above us. We shrink from telling Him 
of our cares and weakness. If we knew of Assurance of 
one who had experienced human life, and yet '''y^^pat^y- 
had the almighty power of God, in BPim we might trust : 
His personal recollections of our condition would encourage 
our application and dependence. And is not this want 
nobly met in our Lord? "We have not a High-Priest 
who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, 
but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without 
sin." (Heb. iv. 15.) If poor, we may remember that He 
"had not where to lay His head." If suffering reproach, 
it is told us that He was deemed " a glutton and a wine- 
bibber ;" "a friend of publicans and sinners;" "a blas- 
phemer," and "mad." If unjustly treated by men, and 
apparently deserted by God, we need but to turn to Cal- 
vary, and, while gazing there, we cease to think it strange 
concerning the fiery trial that has befallen us. We are 
crucified together. He knows our sorrows. " He remem- 
bers that we are dust." 



284 CHAPTER V. 

And is an example needed ? Would even the teaching 
An example of ^^ ^^^ Lord be imperfect if He had not Him- 
patience. g^|f shown US how to sufifcr ? Go again to the 

cross. When He was reviled He reviled not again ; when 
He suffered He threatened not, but committed Himself 
unto Him that judgeth righteously." (1 Pet. ii. 23.) Am 
I forbidden to feel ? Is stoic indifference a Christian 
virtue? ^^ Jesus wept." He was '^ troubled in spirit." 
(John xi. 35; xiii. 21.) ^^ Father," said He, ''if it be 
possible, let this cup pass from me ; nevertheless, not as I 
will, but as thou wilt." Men murder Him, and He pra3^s 
for them. His Father deserts Him, and yet He trusts 
Him. Herein He suffered, '' leaving us an example that we 
should follow His steps." (1 Pet. ii. 21.) 

T5. Nor are there wanting other influences. What am 
Its mfliience I> ^^^ what is my condition ? is a question that 
?ronrofZSh lies at the foundation of all religion. Rightly 
as to ourselves. ^^ kuow oursclvcs is the beginning of all know- 
ledge. Contemplatj^, then, in the light of the cross, the 
condition of human nature. Ancient and modern philoso- 
phies have delighted to flatter our pride. They have 
traced up our pedigree to God, and they have claimed for 
us a dignity which would be very welcome, if only it could 
be maintained. Brahmins, for example, speak of them- 
selves as an incarnation of the Deity ; and the Pantheistic 
tendencies of men, or their pride, tempt them to hold the 
sentiment even when they have not shaped it into words. 

It follows from this doctrine that in beings so noble, 
there can be no deep inherent depravity. A taint of evil 
on the surface there may be, but that is all, and it is easily 
removed. Perhaps (it is darkly hinted) their condition is 
properly chargeable on matter, on provoking circumstances, 
or even on the blessed God ; so that, after all, men may be 
guiltless of any worse evil than misfortune. But bring 
this language to the cross. What lessons are taught 



§ 5. CHRIST THE PROPITIATION. 285 

there ? He who hung upon it tasted death for every man, 
because every man had sinned, and so had deserved to die. 
He is the just one, and for the unjust He suffers. In the 
agony and passion of this second Head of the race, I read 
the desert of the first. I am no God, nor part of God, but 
a condemned sinner. The blood of a divine atonement 
was needed to purge my sins. Am I told of the native 
dignity and innocence of man, and of his sympathy with 
the divine ? The divine in all its perfection became incar- 
nate. For that perfection man had no sympathy. Nor 
was it even welcomed in the world it came to redeem. 
Veiled at first, the Divine glory gradually shone through 
the veil more brightly till the world was illumined ; but 
ever as it shone, the hatred in men's hearts burned fiercer, 
and here, on the cross, they are doing what they can to 
extinguish it forever. 

Am I told that the Jews, the murderers of our Lord, 
were worse than men ; and that now, at least, virtue needs 
but to be seen in order to be worshiped ? I look again 
at the cross. Every tendency of human nature which 
these murderers exhibited I mark around me still. Men 
are capable of doing over again that deed of blood. They 
crucify the Son of God afresh in His followers, His prin- 
ciples, and His kingdom. They put Him even now to an 
open shame. And is it amid these scenes, and with the 
history of this teacher before me, that I am to speak of my 
native worth, and claim equality with God ? Thoughts like 
these, everywhere absurd, are impious here. The cross, 
the exhibition of man's deserts, itself the expression of 
man's depravity, is clearly adapted to annihilate all such 
dreams. In the end it may exalt us to unknown dignities, 
but its first lesson is of humiliation and guilt. What man 
deserves, and what man has done, what therefore man ^>, 
are truths revealed at Calvary in characters which none 
need misunderstand. 



286 CHAPTER V. 

'16. What again is religion, and what are its claims ? 
The nature of ^^n's charactcrs are moulded by the object of 
true religion. ^YieiY woTship, and bj the truths they hold ; 
those especially that refer to God and holiness. Every 
religious faith some deem to be alike. There is true piety, 
they say, in all creeds. Sincerity is its essence. Men 
will never ^ see eye to eye.' Have charity; and receive 
as brethren, if they be but sincere, the worshipers of Bud- 
dha and of Jehovah, of Mahomet and of Christ. 

All such equality the cross disclaims. Had Christ been 
content to blend Sadduceeism, and Pharisaism, and Hea- 
thenism into one religion, to sanction all as meaning the 
same thing, or even to allow them a place in that pure and 
exclusive system He came to reveal, He would never have 
suffered. Instead of such blending, however. He de- 
nounced all compromises. He assailed every false system, 
and by the advocates of all He himself was condemned. 
Truth was not on His lips an eclectic faith, a compound of 
all human opinions, and, as such, adapted to meet the 
prejudices of all. Like its Author, it stood out distinctly 
from every thing earthly, formed no secular alliances, and al- 
lowed no rival. Had He been contented to share the throne 
of men's hearts, or to elaim for the religion of the Bible a 
place among other systems, neither He Himself would have 
suffered, nor would His apostles have had to contend with 
the ten thousand opposing influences in Jerusalem, in 
Athens, and at Rome. Of this peculiarity of the teaching 
of our Lord, the cross is at once an evidence and a result. 

*11. But it answers another question. May not God 
And the supre- P^^^ by transgrcssiou ? Is not law the ema- 
mutabmtyof ^^^ou of God's will ? He instituted, and 
law. ^g^j jjg ^Q^ abrogate it ? He is beneficence 

and grace. He is the Father of His creatures, and may 
He not indulge the yearnings of His parental heart, and 
look with equal eye on all His children ; pitying the weak- 



§ 5. CHRIST THE PROPITIATION. 28 1 

ness of the sinful ; but in the exercise of a mercy which no 
finite mind can comprehend, pardoning all, and ultimately 
receiving them into favor again ? A question of deepest 
interest, answered partly in nature and in history. The 
prevalence of misery in a world created by one who is 
Almighty, bespeaks a character, if merciful, yet certainly 
just. The deluge, the history of the Jews, chastened and 
disowned, the voice of conscience, and the natural fore- 
bodings which all men feel of a coming judgment, bespeak 
the existence somewhere of a holy law. But in the cross 
these questions are completely solved. If ever under God's 
government mercy might revolt against justice, it waS 
surely here. The Saviour had been sold by the traitor, 
and deserted by His disciples. He had been assailed by 
false accusers, and condemned by a judge who acknow- 
ledged the injustice of the sentence. He is now handed 
over to a brutal soldiery and fickle people whom He had 
often befriended. It was hard to bear, and yet it was to 
be borne. He meekly drank the cup of His woe ; and it 
w^as the Father who mingled it. It was His hand that 
held it to His lips. If tenderness could have saved our 
Lord, He must have been saved, for tenderness was there 
as the heart of man, in its hour of most impassioned feel- 
ing, has never conceived it. If mercy could have saved 
our race at a smaller cost, His death was a needless sacri- 
fice. But it behoved Him to suffer. Divine pity ever 
leans on truth. Mercy, as she forces her way to the sinner, 
must do homage to justice, and pay the debt before she 
can free the captive. Nowhere else in the universe does 
the sanctity of law and the reality of the holiness of God 
stand out in bolder relief. The lesson is taught in facts, 
is proclaimed to heaven and earth, and may be read by all. 
There is mercy, but it is in harmony with justice. There 
is love, but it spends its force in the gift of the Son. Par- 
don there is, but it is obtained through no weakness in the 



k 



288 CHAPTER V. 

law, through no fickleness or false benevolence on the part 
of the Judge I 

78. Whether, therefore, we look at the death of Christ 
as adapted of itself to excite pity and awe ; to 
touch our religious feelings as guilty and mis- 
erable ; to instruct and quicken our conscience in relation 
to ourselves, to religion, and morality, or to God, it is 
clearly *Hhe power of God to every one that believeth.'' 
'^ To everj one that helieveih ;''"' for without faith the whole 
sacrifice is robbed of its significance. I must believe that 
He is the gift of the Father's love ; that in dying He does 
homage to law ; that I deserve what He suffers ; and that 
in earnestly pleading His death, I acknowledge my own 
guilt, and desire to be freed from it — or these truths are 
powerless. Believing them, forgiveness is inseparable from 
holiness. 

Nor let it be thought that we make more of this prac- 
tical power of the cross than the Bible makes. 

■Results affirm- . . i . i . ■% ^i 

ed in Scrip- it IS the mightiest plea it employs. Christ 
^' loved us, and gave Himself for us," and His 
love '* constrains us to live not unto ourselves, but unto 
Him that died for us, and rose again." We ^^ are bought 
with a price," and feel that we are therefore bound to glo- 
rify Him '^in our bodies and spirits which are His." 
(2 Cor. V. 14; 1 Cor. vi. 20.) When is Christ set forth as 
'* the power and wisdom of God ?" As crucified. Where 
did He spoil *' principalities and powers, and make a show 
of them openly?" On the cross. When was ^^ the judg- 
ment of this world," and when was ^' the prince of this 
world cast out " from his throne ? In the last hours of our 
Saviour's agony. What was the chosen theme of the most 
successful preacher who ever lived ? ^' Jesus Christ and 
Him crucified," whom alone Paul determined to know. 
What is the vow of every Christian, and what the reason 
for it ? *^ God forbid that I should glory save in the cross 



§ 5. CHRIST THE PROPITIATION. 289 

of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified 
unto me, and I unto the world.'^ (1 Cor. ii. 2; Gal. vi. 
14.) So completely in truth does this doctrine operate 
upon our virtue, and so adapted is it, by the view it gives 
of the consequences of sin, of the excellence of the law, of 
the love and faithfulness of God, of the tenderness and 
grace of Christ, that those who profess to receive it and 
are not virtuous, are represented not as the '^ enemies " of 
the precepts and example of Christ only, but as emphati- 
cally the '^enemies of the cross." (Phil. iii. 18.) 

t9. The death of our Lord, as we have now viewed it, 
was the work of the people. ''By wicked intercessor 
hands " was he crucified and slain. In another ^"^ ^"'^^*- 
sense, it was the work of God. '' According to His deter- 
minate counsel," He was delivered up into their hands. In 
yet a third sense, it was the work of our Lord. He gave 
Himself for us. He had power to lay down His life, 
and He had power to take it again. (John x. 18.) Dying, 
He was the victim offered once for all. Giving Himself to 
die. He was the intercessor and priest. 

Properly the priesthood and intercession of Christ are 
terms that refer to His whole work. Derivately and in ac- 
tual usage, they express all He has done for us. As priest, 
(fcfpfrj, i. e. Ispa ps^slv.) He attends to things that pertain to 
God ; teaching His will, offering atonement for sin, bring- 
ing us near, and pleading on our behalf. As mediator 
(lj.£6Lt7]^) or intercessor, Pie goes between God and man, 
satisfies divine justice, and removes from us the sentiment 
of wrath (opyrj ^sLTfspyos) with which God cannot but regard 
iniquity. This blessing He achieves for our race, and at 
His own cost. Sent forth from God, He appears on earth, 
finishes His work, and then, as our (anogo-ko^) apostle (as 
well as our Father's), enters for us into the glory he had 
left. Having sanctified Himself for this office. He now 
sanctifies us, and is in His own person (o aytafwi^. tyyvo^. 

25 



290 CHAPTER V. 

7ip68pofiog. dp;^>7ydr,) the pledge of the fulfihnent of every 
covenant promise, the forerunner and the author of our 
salvation. 

More commonly, however, these terms are restricted in 
meaning to the work of Christ in heaven ; especially the 
two first. He is high priest for ever. He liveth to make 
intercession for us. Even as so restricted, however, care 
must be taken to include in them all the Bible includes. 
The intercession of Christ is properly the completion of 
His sacrifice. It perpetuates the efiicacy of His expiation. 
It bears to atonement the same relation that providence 
bears to creation. The covenant of pardon and eternal 
life is founded on the atonement of the cross ; the adminis- 
tration of the covenant on the continuance of the power of 
the atonement in heaven. God created and now sustains. 
Christ died and now intercedes. 

His work in heaven is to appear for us in our nature — 
(Heb. ix. 24 ; Acts vii. 56) as our substitute, having 
obeyed and suffered in our stead; and generally as our 
friend : to exhibit His atoning sacrifice as the ground on 
which the blessings for which He pleads may be bestowed, 
both largely and righteously, and to intimate His will, 
either in words or in some form of appeal yet more impres- 
sive, that the gifts He purchased may be shed down upon 
His Church. (Heb. ix. 10-12, 23 ; John xvii. 24 ; Heb. 
vii. 25.) So regarded, the intercession of our Lord justi- 
fies our largest expectations, and is the pledge of our final 
success. 

Let it not be supposed, however, that this office of our 
Redeemer is needed to awaken the love of the Father, or 
to remind Him of what He might otherwise forget, or to 
draw down blessings which are grudgingly bestowed. In 
the love of the Father the office itself originated. His 
people and their interest are graven upon the palms of His 
hands, and He can nevev forget them. What He giveth, He 



§ 5. CHRIST THE PROPITIATION. 291 

giveth liberally. The office is rather a provision intended 
to impress upon all, that mercy is exercised even still in 
harmony with justice, and that our communion with God 
is ever through the mediation of Christ. Its first great 
truth is, that if God is at peace with sinners, it is through 
the sacrifice of the cross ; and its second truth, that as 
Jesus pleads, so He must prevail, and they in Him. We 
are to come boldly to the throne, though ever feeling that 
it is a throne of grace. He links Himself with us as peti- 
tioner, asking His rights, that we may feel our depend- 
ence, and that we may be linked with Him as Heir and 
King. 



CHAPTER VL 



CHRIST AS KING. 

§ 1. The Resurrection of our Lord, and Lessons con- 
nected WITH IT. 

§ 2. Christ the King of Hades — the Forerunner — the 
First Fruits of them that slept. 

§ 3. The Invisible King. 

§ 4. The Second Coming of our Lord 



25* 



(293) 



294 



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CHAPTER VL 



CHRIST AS KING. 



Sect. 1. — The Resurrection of our Lord, and lessons 
connected with it. 

1. And now the overthrow of the scheme that Christ 
came to proclaim seems complete. His disci- 
ples had deserted Him ; the boldest of their apparently the 

ovHrtlirow of 

number had denied Him, and the Founder of the hopes of 
the new faith has Himself been put to death. ^^ ^^^^^ *^^' 
In this impression the apostles evidently shared. With the 
crucifixion of their Master, they seem to have abandoned 
all expectation of the establishment of His kingdom. 

2. Within six weeks, however, after this apparent ter- 
mination of their hopes, the views of the dis- change in their 
ciples are entirely changed. We find them ^^^^'^* 
again assembled in Jerusalem, neither sorrowing nor de- 
spondent, but declaring publicly that the Jesus, whom the 
Jews with wicked hands had crucified and slain, was both 
Lord and Christ, and that through faith in Him alone are 
men to be accepted and forgiven. (Acts ii. 36.) 

3. And what intermediate historical fact is there to ex- 
plain this transition ? Christ has re-appeared 

among them ; He is raised from the dead ; 
their faith in His previous promises has thence received a 

(295) 



29 G CHAPTER VI. 

new impulse ; and convictions have been imparted which 
Hisresurrec- ^cre before unknown. His resurrection has 
tion. given the idea of new and even closer commu- 

nion with Him ; communion, moreover, which is never to 
be dissolved. According to their own assertions — asser- 
tions repeated in one form or another more than fifty times 
in the Acts and Epistles — this event was the foundation of 
their steadfast faith in His person and in Himself as Mes- 
siah, as well as of their own certain hope of a blessed im- 
mortality. His resurrection, in fact, justified their previous 
convictions, and for ever confirmed them. 

4. This issue of His death He had Himself foretold. 
Foretold by '* ^ ^^^® power to lay down my life, and I have 
himself. power,'' said He, ''to take it again." (John x. 
11, 18.) Elsewhere, even more clearly (Matt. xvi. 21 ; 
xvii. 23 ; Luke ix. 22 ; Mark ix. 31), specifying in these 
passages the precise interval of three days, during which He 
was to remain in the grave. The full import of these predic- 
tions, however, had been hidden from the disciples ; nor did 
they gather comfort from them till now they were fulfilled. 

5. But if this was to be the issue of the sufferings of 

our Lord, must it not have deprived them of 
these previous much of their bittern CSS ? A difiiculty that 
ions. cannot be perfectly solved. It is answered, 
however, as far as it can be answered, in the mystery of 
His incarnation, and the nature of His atonement. The 
consciousness that death was but a passage to glory did 
not prevent the struggle of nature with suffering, especially 
such suffering as His for our sins. We know that He 
reached heaven through faith (Heb. xii. 2), as must all 
His followers ; and His sacrifice lost as little of its moral 
import, and His sufferings as little of their intensity from 
the assurance of His resurrection, as do the present trials 
of believers from the equally certain assurauce of an im- 
mortal life. 



§ 1. THE RESURRECTION OF OUR LORD. 29 1 

6. Paley has pointed out the fact, that if the Gospel had 
been a forgery, the inspired writers would never 

. The resurrec- 

have represented Christ as appearing after His tion an evi- 
resurrection to His disciples only ; and no so^ation only 

T T , , T . 1 . . -r^ , . . , to disciples. 

doubt this remark is just. But there is m the 
fact itself a still deeper truth. During His life He showed 
Himself to all^ beseeching men to be reconciled, and at- 
tracting their confidence by services of unwearied love ; 
but in His resurrection He was known only to His own. 
It was a miracle, by which believers were to be con- 
vinced. Those whose hearts had received no saving im- 
pression from His ministry, would have received no such 
impression from His re-appearance. If the living Christ 
had not led them to repentance, neither were they to be 
persuaded though He rose from the dead. 

Y. Another reason still is suggested by the fact, that His 
resurrection was not only intended to seal and 
confirm the faith of those who already believed, for invisible 

communion. 

but also to teach to such the great lesson, that 
communion with a visible Saviour was now to yield to 
communion with a spiritual being ever present, though 
mostly invisible. Forty days He remained on earth to 
give them the full assurance that He was risen — to afford 
them a clearer insight into the mysteries of His kingdom ; 
but only forty days, for He did not mean them to cleave to 
any visible manifestation of Himself. His re-appearance 
was but a preparation for higher and eternal union. To 
such as believed, therefore, it was an instructive lesson and 
a decisive evidence ; but to unbelievers it would have been 
inappropriate and useless. 

8. In accordance with this fact He appeared to His dis- 
ciples only, and all His appearances were in 
love ; that love showing itself differently, how- to disciples 
ever, according to the condition of its object. ^° ^* 



298 CHAPTER VI. 

Such as were in sorrow it soothed ; such as were walking 
in light it gladdened ; such as had gone astray it rebuked 
and restored. 

9. Christ's first appearance was graciously afforded to 
Christ's first ^hc two womcu who visited His tomb. As 
appearance. ^-^^j returned in sadness from the place where 
He had lain, He met them. They were filled at once with 
Successive ap- PJ. surprisc, and fear. Immediately they fell 
pearances. bcforc Him and embraced His feet. '' Be not 
afraid," said He; and then bade them go and announce 
His resurrection to His disciples, of whom he spoke as His 
^' brethren." 

Next He visits Mary, who had remained at the grave 
SecoDd appear- opprcsscd with grief and anxiety. Seeing Him 
ance. Unexpectedly in the morning twilight, she did 

not know Him ; He therefore called her by name, and im- 
mediately she recognized His voice. With an exclamation 
of joy she stretched forth her hands, probably intending to 
touch Him, but Christ warned her that He had not yet 
ascended to His Father ; that the time of His union with 
His people (of which He had previously spoken) was not 
yet come ; and that henceforth the fellowship that was to 
subsist between Himself and His disciples was to be not 
personal, but spiritual : ^^ Cleave not," therefore says He, 
'^to me ; for I am not yet ascended to my Father." 

Early in the afternoon of the same day. He appeared to 
Third appear- F^tcr (Lukc xxiv. 33, 34; 1 Cor. XV. 5) ; and 
ance. Fourth, i^^^^ to two disciplcs goiug to Emmaus, a small 
village a mile distant from Jerusalem. They had heard 
that the body of Christ was not found in the sepulchre ; 
but the news that He had appeared to any had not reached 
them. As they walked, they conversed freely of all that 
had occurred, and of the disappointment of their hopes. 
While absorbed in conversation a stranger joined them, 
and took part in it. By degrees he ascertained their feel- 



§ 1. THE RESITKRECTION OF OUR LORD. 299 

big, and thence began to expound the Scriptures, and to 
show that the facts which were shaking their faith ought 
really to confirm it. ^' For thus/' said he, '^it behoved 
Christ to suffer. '^ Under the power of His teaching, their 
hearts burned within them — a new light dawned upon 
their souls. The person of the speaker, however, was not 
recognized ; they were not aware of the appearance of their 
risen Lord ; perhaps their attention was so occupied with 
the thoughts He uttered, that they did not particularly 
notice His appearance ; or perhaps His sufferings and re- 
surrection had somewhat changed Him. When they ar- 
rived, therefore, at their journey's end, '^ He made as if He 
would have gone farther." He had no reason to intrude 
upon them, but they courteously urged Him to remain, 
and on His complying they courteously gave Him the 
place of the host. Before they began. He pronounced a 
blessing, then brake the bread and gave it them ; and in 
this act they discerned the Friend who had so often sat 
with them at table and shared their meal. (Luke xxiv. 
30, 31.) 

Christ seems to have returned to Jerusalem ; and in the 
evening of the same day He met the assembled ^jfth appear- 
apostles, all being present except Thomas. On ^^^^' 
the following Lord's day He appeared to the apostles again, 
Thomas beino; with them. Afterwards He ap- 

M ^ m-i Sixth. Seventh. 

peared to seven of them on the Sea of Tibe- Eighth. Ninth. 

. . , Tenth. 

rias ; then in the mountain of Galilee to the 
apostles, and the five hundred other brethren; then to 
James ; then again to the eleven at Jerusalem, immediately 
before His ascension. 

10. His conduct and language on these dif- fan"mT4^hioh- 
ferent occasions are highly instructive. ^^ instructive. 

Wlien He first appeared to the disciples they were as- 
sembled with closed doors, and suddenly He stood in the 



800 CHAPTER VI, 

midst of tliem, and said, repeating the usual salutation, 
His language tliough witli deeper significance: ''Peace be 
It Hi^ firsT^^"^'^ unto you.'' ''And tliey were affrighted, sup- 
^^^'^- posing they had seen a spirit." He gently 

rebuked their fears ; and, to prove that He was there in 
bodily presence. He appealed to His hands and His feet, 
and ate before them. He then explained to them the 
Scriptures, and opened their hearts to understand them. 
And then were "the disciples glad when they saw the 
Lord.'' 

Again He said : " Peace be unto you ;" and added, " As 
My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you;" thus 
consecrating them as the messengers of His peace to men. 

He then breathed upon them, as a symbol of the in- 
spiration they were to receive from the Father to prepare 
them to preach Plis gospel, and to proclaim in His name 
forgiveness of sins. That this symbolical act might be 
clearly significant. Pie added the explanation : " Receive 
ye the Holy Ghost." His previous disclosures must now 
have been remembered by them. Tiieir higher life pro- 
bably became stronger ; though what farther was implied 
in this act was not imparted till the day of Pentecost. It 
was indeed affirmed to be partly prophetic, and had refer- 
ence to the promise of the Father, and the power with 
which they were hereafter to be endued from on high. 
(Mark xvi. 11, 18.) 

11 The week following Christ appeared to the eleven 
a second time, when Thomas was with them. 

His language .. . , . , . 

at His second Again He stooQ mystcriously in their midst, 
offering the very sign that Thomas had unbe- 
lievingly required. "Reach hither thy finger," said He, 
"and behold My hands:" — a manifestation at once of 
knowledge and of love, that drew from this disciple an 
expression of faith stronger than any that we have yet 
heard from the disciples : " My Lord and my God." (John 



§ 1. THE RESURRECTION OF OUR LORD. 301 

XX. 21 J 28.) This utterance of faith sprang clearly rather 
from outward evidence than from inward feeling : and 
therefore Christ adds, when expressing His acceptance of 
it, the significant promise : ^'Because thou hast seen thou 
hast believed ; blessed are they that have not seen, and yet 
have believed ;'' intimating that in after time true faith 
must be impossible if it depend on present sensible signs 
of assurance ; and that such true faith, connected as it is 
with the consciousness of religious w^ant, and the percep- 
tion of Christ's grace, rather than with visible evidence, is 
doubly blessed. 

12. In later appearances Peter is formally reinstated in 
his office, and his fears are removed ; the dis- jjj^, languago 
ciples are commissioned to preach the gospel ^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^*^* 
to every creature, and to admit men of all nations to 
Christ's communion and fellowship.* He assures them (the 



* We think it somewhat surprising that our author should pass so 
cursorily over the final Great Commission; under which all Christ's 
ministers must proceed in the spread of Christianity throughout the 
world. " It is required of stewards,'' says the apostle, " that a man be 
found faithful ;" and this Commission, without doubt, is the ultimate rule 
and test of our fidelity. 

It is, indeed, a just and beautiful view of Dr. Angus, that the ministers 
of Christ are authorized by the Commission,, to " admit men of all nations 
to Christ's communion and fellowship." But this language is too general 
to convey to any intelligent reader, much less to an intelligent heathen, 
any definite ideas of the prescribed order, or manifold nature of that 
fellowship. The least that could be said with propriety, it seems to us, 
wonld be to point out that this communion with Christ required in the 
Commission is threefold — vital, by faith in the Gospel ,* visible, by bap- 
tism in the Triune Name; diJidi practical, by a life of universal obedience 
to His will — "teaching them to observe all things whatsoever J. have 
commanded you." This is Gospel order. The Acts and the Epistles 
show how faithfull}'- the apostles observed it. In so doing we act in 
communion with Christ — we walk in His light, and He is with us to the 
end of the world. But let no man deceive himself. *^ If we say that we 
have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not tho 
truth." (1 John i. 6.)— J. N. B. 

26 



802 CHAPTER VI. 

assurance being given in instnictiye connection with their 
last commission) that all authority is given to Him in 
Heaven and in earth, and that He will be with them even 
unto the end. 

13. During one of these interviews, the old worldly 
spirit of the disciples again appeared ; and they asked Him 
whether He intended then to establish His kingdom in its 
glory ? '^ It is not for you," He contents Himself with re- 
plying, 'Ho know the times and the seasons." (Acts i.) 
You know your own calling, and I have given you a pro- 
mise whereby that calling shall be fulfilled, even the pro- 
mise of the Spirit; all else you may leave 
with me. With this reply and this promise, he 

was carried up out of their sight ; ascending in His glo- 
rified human nature to His Father. 

14. And now the great work of Christ's incarnation is 
Glorified hu- Complete. In ancient times He was spoken of 
STinWen. ^s ^ the Angel of God," -the Angel of His 
chdsrever^ap^- pi'^sence," the Messenger of the covenant," 
P^^^^- ''the Lord." In some of the prophets (espe- 
cially Ezekiel and Daniel) " His likeness is as the appear- 
ance of a man." Henceforth these titles cease : likeness 
has become reality. It is the appearance of a man no 
more, for His manhood has been verified and adored. 
The glory has taken a permanent form, and as a glorified 
man He is ever after set forth in the book of God. As 
such He stands in the midst of the golden candlesticks ; as 
such He Himself tells us He will hereafter be seen, "sit- 
ting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds 
of heaven ;" and as such, when the judgment is past. His 
name will be made excellent in all worlds. 

15. To the very close the Gospels retain their pecu- 
Pecuiiarities of li^rities ; and nowhere are those peculiarities 
pveser°4^dtiii Hiorc Strikingly seen than in the narrative of 
thecios^. Q^j. Lord's ascension. In Matthew it is the 



§ 1. THE RESURRECTION OF OUR LORD. 303 

Messiah claiming rightful dominion, and promising Hi3 
presence. ^' All authority/ is given unto Me in heaven and 
earth. Go ye, and teach all nations : Lo, I am with 
you ;" and this position he seems to occupy still, for 
nothing follows to weaken the impressiveness of this last 
utterance. He still stands in the attitude of authority 
and of love. In Mark He is received up into heaven ; but 
as His apostles go forth to preach His Gospel, He is spoken 
of as working with them, and confirming their words with 
signs following. There we have Christ in his energy and 
might. In Luke he appears as a man ; as a priest taken 
from among men, executing the functions of His priestly 
office ; for as He is parted from His followers, He lifts up 
His hands and blesses them. Luke had commenced his 
history with the man Jesus in his infancy, and in His va- 
rious human relations ; and he now closes it with a view 
of the same Jesus, a man still, though risen and glorified ; 
entering the heavenly temple, and as He enters it, receiving 
man's adoration and praise. In JohUj again, the great 
office of the Comforter, Christ's representative on earth, is 
distinctly revealed. He is to reign in the place of the 
Lord, and, therefore, after a beautiful exhibition of Christ's 
dignity, as attested by Thomas, and a no less beautiful ex- 
hibition of His love, as shown in His treatment of Peter, 
Christ is mysteriously withdrawn. The last scene shows 
us Peter and John following Him. The Gospel ends, and 
we see Him no more. 

We may say, therefore, that in Matthew he is everywhere 
Messiah, the Prince. In Mark he ascends to the right 
hand of power, as the Captain of Salvation, in order to 
share the ministry of His servants. In Luke, as the Priest 
to be alone in the sanctuary of heaven ; and in John, as the 
Son of the Father, introducing the children to the Father's 
house, and quietly leaving the interests of His kingdom to 
the immediate government of His Spirit. 



804 CHAPTER VI. 

16. The permanent influence of the presence of Christ 
in heaven, of Christ as having our nature in 

Influence of . . . . , ^.on i, . 

Christ's incar- UUlOn With HlS OWU, it IS UOt dimCUlt tO COU- 

ing an crea- ccivc. Bj this uuion He has embraced in one 
bond of love all intermediate orders of intelli- 
gences, without annulling any real and native difference. 
He has thus introduced a law of relationship, which 
obliges the highest to recognise the lowest, and enables the 
lowest, without presumption, to take the place assigned 
them. The Incarnate Word now glorified, brings together 
in the mystery of His person the angelic and the human 
— the most recent and the most ancient of God's intelligent 
tribes. Things in heaven and things on earth find a com- 
mon centre in Him. 

It. Nor can we be surprised at the result of this mys- 
influenceof tcrious chaugc ou the minds of his disciples. 
S'thfmind? '' They worshiped Him, and returned to Jeru- 
of His disciples. ^^lIqioq. with great joy : and were continually in 
the Temple, praising and blessing God." Sorrow had 
filled their hearts, but henceforth their worship was praise, 
and their whole life a psalm. The First Fruits of the 
Kesurrection had been accepted for them, and the feast of 
the resurrection, like every feast of first fruits, must be kept 
with joy. Another festival was indeed at hand, and at 
Pentecost the first fruits of all their ground, in yet another 
sense, were to be offered to God. (Lev. xxiii. 10.) But in- 
dependently of that blessing, Jesus and the resurrection 
formed now their feast, and with no other feelings than of 
gladness could they look upon Him. His new life. His 
glorified nature, the first trophy ever won from the grave, 
was at once the pledge and the model of their own. 



§ 2. christ the king of hades. 305 

Sect. 2. — Christ the King of Hades. The Forerunner, 
The First Fruits of them tpiat slept. 

18. The great questions that have continued to perplex 
all heathen nations in their reliorious inquiries, 

. The ihree-fdia 

relate to God, his nature, and attributes ; to difficulties of 
holiness, its rules, and motives ; and to another h TrjcofLarou 
life, its reality, and the preparation for it. On ^^'^^' 
all these questions it may be said that the heathen have no 
knowledge. They form conjectures, sometimes commend- 
able, sometimes fearfully defective ; but knowledge they 
have none. All these questions, however, are answered in 
the Gospel. In Christ we have God manifest in the flesh ; 
in His life and person we have law embodied ; and we 
have now to consider His relation to the future. His very 
incarnation solves innumerable difficulties con- jj^^ ^^^^^^ -^ 
nected with the Godhead ; His life and teach- ^^^ ^^^p^^- 
ing are no less decisive in regard to ethical questions ; 
while in His resurrection and ascension we find ''life and 
immortality brought to light," revealed with as much clear- 
ness as is consistent with our condition. 

19. The teaching of Scripture on this question is highly 
instructive. It calls Him the conquorer of r^j^g question 
death. He has the keys of the invisible state, goived^by the 
(Rev. iii. t.) ''He shutteth and no man open- ^^^^p^i- 
eth; he openeth and no man shutteth." He is our fore- 
runner, for he hath shown us the path of life. ''For us 
He has entered within the veil." One in human form has 
passed through the dark valley — has gone in a nature, on 
which death can have no more dominion, into the presence 
of God, and has become a pledge of the in- its threefold 
gathering of the whole harvest of the Church, ^^p^'^*^- 

As conqueror he has gained a right to complete our re- 
demption. As forerunner he has shown us in what senses, 
and to what an extent, our redemption will be complete. 



306 CHAPTER VI. 

And as the Jlrst fruits of them that sleep, He gives the 
assurance of the accomplishment of His work, and of the 
final manifestation of the sons of God. 

21. But what is immortality, and what the future life on 
which men are to enter ? Questions which the 
mortality?— hcathcu auswcr in most contradictory forms ; 
trates it as the proviug the corrcctuess of their replies, even 
when sound, by arguments altogether incon- 
clusive. 

With many of them future life was something between 
Opinions of the ^^iug and uot being — a state corresponding to 
heathen. ^^^ B>\jdAjQ of mau's mind in dreams or in infancy. 

Its happiness, even in the case of the noble and generous, 
was unreal, ^' a shadow dealt out to shadows ;" or, if it as- 
sumed form and substance, it was sensual only. 

With some it was the destruction of all individual con- 
sciousness, the annihilation of distinct personal existence, 
the absorption by the Spirit of the Universe of all indivi- 
dual derived spirits. With none did it involve or suppose 
the revivification of the body. Hence Achilles preferred 
the condition of the meanest slave on earth to the very 
highest of the unsubstantial glories of Elysium. Hence Ho- 
mer describes the souls of his heroes as going to the shades, 
and the heroes themselves {avtov^ 8s) as a prey to dogs and 
birds. Hence also the remarkable fact, that nowhere in 
ancient systems was the punishment of another life made 
a practical motive to virtue. 

The arguments employed to prove even such a future 
life, as some were disposed to admit, were none 

Reasons in sup- . , . t . 

port of their of them conclusivc. The soul, it was said, is 

"VIGWS 

not material, and therefore it cannot die. There 
are serious irregularities in this life, said others, and a 
future state of retribution is necessary to vindicate the 
justice of God, and to equalise His dealings. Men are 
capable of continued improvement, and have e^ddently a 



§ 2. CHRIST THE FORERUNNER. 30t 

disposition to entertain fears and hopes of something after 
death. And, it was sometimes added, is not eternal hap- 
piness a necessary consequence of virtue ; or if not, then 
of the goodness of the Creator ? Thus they reasoned, but 
never in such forms as to produce conviction. Probability 
was the utmost point they ever reached, and the probability 
was never practical. 

It is in Christ only that life and immortality have heen 
hrought to light ; and it is in the Gospel only that the 
powers of the world to come (to use that expression with 
new meaning) exercise holy influence over men's hearts. 
In the Gospel, moreover, the same act that seals our title 
to it reveals its nature, and proves its reality ; the resur- 
rection, namely, of our Lord. Mortal life with its humi- 
liation and fears, death with its anguish and dismay, and 
Hades (the world unseen), were all included in His victory. 
He subdued and explained them all ; and by a double 
title — the title of conquest and of experience — has gained 
authority alike over the dead and the living. 

22. To the Christian, therefore, the hope of immortality 
is not merely an inference of reason. [N'or is our knowledge 
it a feeling excited by a mere verbal promise, resuu of au^ 
which might be interpreted with latitude of ^^^"^i^^^^- 
meaning. It is a deduction from an actual fact, all the 
parts of which have been set before us. Our conclusions 
are not fancy, nor even reason. They are knowledge. If 
the future had only been announced^ analogy and conscience 
might have suggested, no doubt, many cheering lessons, 
and have justified the conclusion that, after a protracted 
probation and successive stages of improvement, the human 
soul might reach a higher state of enjoyment and of virtue. 
But any such scheme would clearly have formed a striking 
contrast to that blessedness which the Gospel reveals. 
Christ has gone through the several stages of our course, 
and we know from His history that there is but a step be- 



L 



308 CHAPTER VI. 

tween us and the highest promotion. One who was made 
in all points like unto us, has, in our view^ trodden upon 
the earth, and passed immediately *' into the heavens,'' 
entering from this earth into the presence of God, nor fear- 
ing to show Himself there in the form of man. 

V/hat that future life is, may be said, in one sense, to be 

unrevealed. The fact of our personal con- 
trates it as the sciousucss, the Spiritual elements of the state 

itself, are indeed told us ; but the mode of life, 
its transactions, its condition, are all hidden. And wisely 
hidden ; for human life would be a burden, and human 
probation an impossibility, if heaven and hell were present 
to the senses as they are now to our faith. This much only 
is told us, that when we come to the end of our course, and 
our next step must rest upon ground that is unseen, we 
have but to put our hand into Christ's hand and be led by 
Him. Trusting His guidance and care we are secure ; on 
that unseen ground He stands ; over it He reigns. The 
awful solemnity of entering upon it He has known. If in 
that hour our hearts begin to fail, we have but to realise 
the personal affection of our Redeemer — to remember, that 
the moment we cast off our moorings {wd-Kvai^) from the 
shores of mortality, we are at once and forever with the 
Lord. If we long for a clearer conception of what this 
union involves, we are shut up to analogies and figures 
We know only that it includes whatever is involved in the 
union of the members with the Head — that Head itself 
divine. We are heirs with Him. We shall share His 
glory. We shall possess something incorruptible and un- 
defiled. What these expressions precisely mean, we know 
not ; but they mean something which human nature can 
bear; something adapted to that nature, and in its condi- 
tion of perfect holiness ; something, in short, which is a 
reward even to Him who is ^' the brightness of the Father's 
glory, and the express image of His person;" something 



§ 2. CHRIST THE FORERUNNER. 309 

that repays the agonies of the garden and the cross ; and 
this knowledge is enough. 

23. And if, again, the question be raised, how can man 
live again, and with what body will he come ? 

, , . ,1 . So He illus- 

we have at once an answer m the resurrection trates our re- 
of our Lord. It is human nature in its essen- 
tial elements, though glorified, that is to inherit eternity. 
The very body now subject to dissolution is to escape the 
power of death, and to appear in imperishable vigor. The 
animal tendencies of our frame will doubtless cease. 
'^ When THIS mortal puts on immortality,'' what is natural 
will become spiritual ; but that frame will be a body still. 
To suppose that it will be a mere rudiment, something 
saved from the wreck of the former tabernacle, and only 
needed to connect the earthly with the heavenly state, is 
to rob the language of Scripture of its significance. '^Our 
citizenship (^ Tio-KotiLo) is in heaven, whence we look for the 
Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile bodies and 
fashion them like unto His glorious body, by that mighty 
power whereby He is able to subdue all things unto Him- 
self." (Phil. iii. 21 ) The very nature of the change is 
illustrated and confirmed in the resurrection of our Lord. 

24. And this state is to be uninterrupted and endless : 
' while life, or thought, or being last.' '' Ever g^ ^ur endless 
with the Lord," is the phrase that indicates the ^^^^* 
nature, and origin, and duration of our joy ; conformed to 
His image in body and in spirit, and therefore in bliss. 

25. An obvious objection to these doctrines is their 
sublimity, and the disproportionateness between ^^^.^^^.^^ ^^ 
them and man. That human nature should be ^^ese doctrines 

founded on 

thus ennobled, gifted in all its faculties with an their subiimi- 
endless life, and with a chief pilace in the family 
of God, seems so little accordant with our deserts or pre- 
sent condition, that we shrink at first from affirming or ad- 
mitting it. 



310 CHAPTER VI. 

26. But let the truth of man's original creation and the 
Answered by truth of Christ's death be considered, and the 
man^rOTfginai objectiou is auswcrcd. Human wisdom com- 
greatness, and j^j|.g ^^j.^ ^ doublc mistake. Lookiug at man 

as he is, it assumes for him, in his own unassisted power, 
too much. Looking at man as originally created, it assigns 
to him as certainly too little. Man as redeemed it entirely 
disregards. The inspired writers, on the other hand, while 
they deal faithfully with man in regard to his actual corrup- 
tion, magnify, without scruple, his character as related to 
God and the future. The general style of the Bible prepares 
us, in fact, to receive whatever it may declare to be his 
ultimate destiny. Its first statement concerning us fore- 
shadows our final greatness : *' God created man in His 
own image. In the image of God created He him." The 
very aim of the 'New Testament confirms this view ; for its 
great and precious promises were revealed that we might 
be made partakers of a ''divine nature." And constantly 
is human salvation spoken of as a restoration and recovery. 
It brings man back to the state he has lost. In it we are 
''begotten again to a lively hope." 

21. But it is the scheme of redemption which makes 
these expressions not only intelligible, but al- 

By the mystery i mi 

of the scheme most natural. That scheme sets lorth the fact, 
indeed, that man is to live forever, and as part 
of the family of the blessed God. But it lessens the sur- 
prise excited by this miracle by announcing another. This 
result is, it tells us, the effect of the union of our nature 
Men identified ^^^^ ^^^ Diviuc iu the pcrsou of the Messiah, 
with Christ, rjy^^Q sccoud includcs the first, as the greater 
includes the less ; and the miracle of the results is for- 
gotten in the miracle of the means. 

This truth of the indissoluble union between Christ and 
His disciples. He continually exhibits in His teaching ; 
sometimes in figures of speech, and sometimes in literal 



§ 3. THE INVISIBLE KING. 811 

statements. Christ calls Himself ^^ihe shepherd who lays 
down his life for the sheep." He is a vine, and the source 
of life to every branch. Nor is this enough. It is part 
of His intercessory prayer for His followers, that '' they all 
may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee ; 
that they may be one in us." Language can scarcely be 
more intense or decisive. His oneness with the Father is 
made a type of our oneness with Him. 

28. As, therefore, Christ is Himself *'the Prince of 
life," ^^the living One," '^He who has life am hence im- 
in Himself," who is ''the life and the light of °^^"^^^- 
men," who ''liveth for evermore," ''whose goings forth 
are from everlasting," and who is Himself "the Father of 
an eternal age," so all His followers share His existence, 
and are identified with His eternity. " Because He lives 
they shall live also." They may, therefore, fear extinction 
only when He, the Lord of life, is Himself no more. 

Sect. 3. — The Invisible King. 

29. Zechariah has described in a beautiful prediction 
the nature and the results of the Gospel. " In 

that day," says he, " a fountain shall he opened overthrows au 
for all sin to the house of David, and to the 
inhabitants of Jerusalem :" and, as the consequence of 
this blessing, "the idols shall cease from the land." This 
prediction has been partially fulfilled. The fountain is 
opened, and as Christianity extends, idolatry recedes. 

30. But, in the Bible sense of the word, idolatry includes 
more than the adoration of an imao-e. It in- 

^ and makes God 

eludes the withdrawal of a spiritual affection the object of 

supreme love. 

from God, and the bestowment of that affection 
on other beings. It is a sin not of outward worship 
only, but of the heart. When, therefore, idolatry is for- 
bidden in the Bible, it is implied that God, and God only, 
is to be the object of supreme love. Ileverence and obe- 



312 CHAPTER VI. 

dience are ultimately due only to Him ; and it is the 
recognition of this truth which is to be an evidence and 
the result of the success of the Gospel. The tenor of all 
ancient prophecy confirms this prediction. When the 
mountain of the Lord^s house is established on the top of 
the mountains . . . the idols shall be utterly abolished. 
(Is. ii. 1-lt.) 

31. And yet both in Scripture prediction and in Scrip- 

ture history we have an apparently contradic- 
preme love and tory fact. Evcry whcrc throughout the Bible 

■worship are . t->' - n -i ^ ' ^ ti 

ascribed and a mystcrious Bcmg IS found besides Jehovah, 

due to Christ. _ .i-r^.. i rr« i'T^« 

vested with Divme honors. To this Being, 
He himself assures us, there has been committed a power 
which embraces all things in heaven and in earth ; while 
elsewhere we find intimations which seem to teach that His 
authority is recognised in other worlds besides our own. 
Apostles pray to Him. Pious men ascribe to Him, their 
creation, and forgiveness, and safety. Titles of highest 
dignity are awarded to Him. ^' On His thigh is a name 
written. King of kings, and Lord of lords." He is even 
the ^' Prince of the kings of the earth." One prophet, 
Jude, quotes from another to show that He is surrounded 
by ten thousands of His saints, and that He is to be our 
Judge ; and the last book of inspiration discloses the fact 
that heaven resounds with His praise, owing to Him the 
very light that fills and beautifies the place. 

32. This dignity, moreover, is not assumed by Himself, 
Not assumed ^^^ formally given to Him by the Father as 
gfvS"byf/?e ^^^ consequence of His human nature. The 
floSirgfrom Father gave Him this authority, ^'because He 
our obligations, ^g ^j-^^ g^j^ ^f man." For the same reason 

Christians render Him homage. As the Son He redeemed 
us, and therefore we love Him. As the Son He offers us 
salvation, and we believe on Him, As the Son He is to re- 
ceive us to glory, and we hope in Him. As the Son He 



§ 3. THE INVISIBLE KING. 813 

is our strength and life, and we rejoice in Him. As the 
Son He is our king and head, and we obey and adore Him. 
These emotions, moreover, are supreme. They constitute 
all that we have to offer — love, and fear, and joy ; adora- 
tion, obedience, and praise. 

33. ISTor is there really any contradiction between these 
facts and the lanraao^e of the prophets. The 

^ ^ i jr rpjj.y supreme 

Son of Man is not the rival God of the Crea- love and wor- 
tor. The dictate of Scripture, which bids us try, for Christ 

is God. 

to worship God, is not here at war with the 
impulse of the heart which bids us to worship man. The 
appointed Sovereign and the eternal Sovereign are one. 
Our nature is interwoven with the Godhead. The Re- 
deemer is King, and the Father is honored in the Son. 

34. This supremacy of Christ is His Kingship ; it rests 
on a foundation which forms part of the very This supre- 
throne of God. His dominion is established in ^^^l2\ king- 
human hearts. It is founded in willing suhmis- ^^^p- 

sion. It is maintained by spiritual authority. It is esta- 
blished in righteousness. It will ultimately unite heaven 
and earth. It begins, as we have found, in its pecuiiari- 
individual conversion. Its grandest earthly ^^'^^■ 
manifestation will be seen in the general extension of 
truth ; the richest and noblest manifestation of all will be 
seen in heaven. Christ's death founds it ; Christ's Spirit 
forms it ; Christ's will (which is ever in harmony with the 
will of the Father) rules it ; Christ's glory (which is also 
the glory of the Father, and comprehends the full blessed- 
ness of the redeemed) is its end. 

35. The establishment of this kingdom is the great 
theme of ancient prophecy, and the very pur- 

^ ^ *^' -^ ^ Where the Gos- 

pose of the s-ospel. Nearly every narrative of p^i is pro- 

5ni ^ ' T . 1 • n claimed, and 

Christ's sufferings ends m the creation of a men believe. 
Church co-extensive with our race. The stone founded, and 
which the builders rejected is immediately seen istobeunivei^ 
as the head of the corner. (Ps. cxviii. 22.) 

27 



314 CHAPTER VI. 

The most mournful of the ancient predictions first shows 
Him as despised and afflicted, and then as having thejiiany 
for His portion, and the mighty for His spoil. (Is. liii.) 
The 22d Psalm, which opens with His awful exclamation, 
My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me ?'' and runs 
through every mood of sadness, closes with the assurance 
that all the ends of the earth shall worship before God. 

These predictions are fulfilled in the record of His life. 
The sufferings of Christ terminate in the glory which should 
follow. He made reconciliation for iniquity, brought in 
an everlasting righteousness, that all peoples, and nations, 
and languages may serve Him. He tasted death for every 
man, and God hath therefore crowned Him with glory and 
honor. Because He took upon Him the form of a ser- 
vant, and became obedient unto death, even the death of 
the cross, ''God also hath highly exalted Him, and given 
Him a name above every name, that at the name of Jesus 
every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things on 
earth, and things under the earth ; and that every tongue 
should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of 
God the Father.'' (Phil. ii. 9, 10.) 

36. And yet the Governor of this kingdom is Himself 
The King Him- unsecn. His Church is established and extend- 
seif unseen. -^^^^ rpj^^ mcmbcrs of His liviug body are all 

complete, but there is no visible head. T^xe dome of the 
temple seems perfect, but the top-stone, v Mch binds and 
sustains the whole, is hidden in the douds. Christ's 
is clearly an invisible reign. To the world the church is 
His only visible representative upon earth. In the church 
herself we have only the Spirit, whose presence on earth 
we enjoy on the condition, it seems, of the absence of the 
Lord. ''It is expedient," said He to His disciples, "that 
I go away ; for if I go not away, the Comforter cannot 
come ; but if I go, I will send him unto you. And he 
shall take of mine, and show it unto you." (John xvi. 1.) 



I 



§ 3. THE INVISIBLE KING. 315 

SI. The wisdom and necessity of this arrangement we 
cannot thorouo-hly understand. A thousand 

" "^ All the reasons 

proprieties may be harmonized by it, and pos- ofthisarrange- 
sibly all classes of intelligent beings are con- veaicd; some 
templating the fact, and admiring it on 
different grounds. We may, however, notice one or two 
of the subordinate fitnesses involved in it, connected espe- 
cially with the condition of the church. 

Nor must it be thought that in thus attempting to find 
in ourselves reasons for this procedure, we are attaching to 
man an importance which he may not justly claim. The 
whole tenor of Scripture sanctions what would else be 
proud assumption. The promotion of human interests is 
every where reckoned one great end, amongst deeper rea- 
sons doubtless, of the dispensations of God. When Christ 
emptied Himself of glory, and visited our world in poverty 
and weakness, it was for our sakes He became poor. (2 
Cor. viii. 9.) After He entered it. He endured sufferings 
most mysterious and intense ; carrying our griefs and bear- 
ing our sorrows. (Is. liii.) He then passed into glory, 
not reigning on earth or continuing with His followers ; 
and the reason He has Himself given : '^ It is expedient 
for you that I go.'^ (John xvi. ^.) His exaltation even 
has direct reference to our welfare. He ascended to re- 
ceive gifts for men, and to become our advocate with God. 
Clearly then we may regard the indivisibility of Christ in 
connection with His church, and seek in that connection 
for some of the reasons of the arrangement. 

38. It is obvious then, first of all, that if Christ's king- 
dom is to be co-extensive with the w^orld, and ^ universal 
its members are to be scattered through all qu"i?^s^?nTnvi- 
lands, this universality is best secured by the ^^^^^' ^^^^' 
influence of an unseen Kuler, and an energy purely spiri- 
tual. To fix Christ's position on earth ; to announce that 
He was here rather than there, would inevitably result in 



316 CHAPTER VI. 

collecting the church round one centre of influence and 
blessing. Now, the image of His reign is the air, or the 
light, the element that surrounds the earth, sustaining and 
purifying all that breathe. Under another constitution 
this image would fail, and the church would become a 
scene of exclusiveness and privilege appropriated by such 
only as happen to reside in the vicinity of the court, or 
have personal access to the Great King. There might in 
that case be light and warmth at the centre, but at the 
extremities we should have little else than coldness and 
death. 

39. Nor need we insist on difficulties which the suppo- 
sition of a visible king would involve, difficul- 

Condition of , 

the world, and tics, howcvcr, both obvious and important. 

of the church ,^ n i ^ n Ti» 

adapted to this Where could we find a place for such a being, 
constituted as the world and the church are ? 
Are they either of them moulded into meetness for His 
personal presence, or are they likely to be under the exist- 
ing conditions of our probation ? And even if a place 
could be found for Him, and Christ did appear, is it con- 
ceivable that such a visitant could reside amongst us with- 
out disarranging the business of life ? If He came in 
humiliation, would men recognise His majesty ? If in 
glory, would not the veneration of those who love Him, 
and the curiosity of the world, be destructive of all atten- 
tion to earthly concerns ? Would it be possible, moreover, 
for our eyes to behold Him ? It is certain that when apos- 
tles saw Him in the transfiguration, they fell on their faces 
and were sore afraid : and even the disciple who knew Him 
so well, when in Patmos he saw His glory, fell at His feet 
as dead. Till therefore the church is free from all impedi- 
ments, till earthly duties and earthly relations cease or 
change, till we have spiritual bodies to make the presence 
of Christ no longer isolated or partial, our very physical 



§ 3. THE INVISIBLE KING. 3 It 

condition demands that Christ be unseen. His invisibility 
seems essential to His reign. 

40. A second reason of this arrangement is found in the 
spiritual life of all Christians. Faith is its 

basis and condition; but faith is the ground cipie of spiri- 
and confidence of things hoped for, the convic- tachmen'tto 
tion of things not seen. By this principle 
man's spiritual life is maintained, and to perfect it is one 
grand design of nature, providence, and revealed truth. 

Upon our faith, moreover, all holiness depends. It is 
the chief element of happiness and of virtue ; and as the 
whole are perfected by use, an invisible Redeemer is re- 
quired to meet this necessity of our condition. Faith, to 
conquer, must fight. Hope, to be triumphant, must not 
see. Love must seek its object through clouds and dark- 
ness ; patience have her perfect work, and even joy smile 
through tears. A visibly present Christ would interrupt 
their process : stop our growth, or bring on a forced matu- 
rity. In any case it is a blessing adapted only to the per- 
fection of heaven. 

41. A third reason is found in the fact that Christ's 
kingdom is designed to be in every condition 

. . Christ unseen, 

the image of Himself. It is to reflect Him in the church is 
His humiliation, as well as in His triumph ; his humiiia- 
and, by progressive stages, to grow up in all 
things into Him who is the Head. ^' The Head of man," says 
the apostle, ^'is Christ, and the Head of Christ is God." 
(1 Cor. xi. 3.) Our relation therefore to Him is analogous 
to His relation to the Father. Suffering is the condition of 
our glory, and the apostle Peter tells us it was the condition 
of Christ's. His suffering consisted, in its essence, in the 
absence of the Father : ours consists, in a great measure, 
in the absence of our Lord. His sufferings ceased on 
His asgension ; and ours cease at His second coming. 

2t* 



318 CHAPTER VI. 

Herein again ''He liath left us an example that we should 
follow His steps.'' 

42. But though not visibly present with His church, 
Heis,howeyer, Christ is v/ith her, both in the whole body and 
church*, ind^in ^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ members. He has promised to 
each member. ^^ -^j^i^ -j^^j, always, cvcu uuto the cud of the 

world; He has declared her to be ''His fullness, (or com- 
pletion,) the fullness of Him that filleth all in all." 

Individual members are instructed that the same truth 
is applicable to them; they are told that they "eat His 
flesh and drink His blood ;" that Christ is in them except 
they be reprobates; that if He be in them "the body is 
dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of right- 
eousness,'' and that "they live, yet not they, but Christ 
liveth in them." That Christ Himself, therefore, will in- 
habit the hearts of His people and reign in them, entire 
in each and entire in all, is His own clear and reiterated 
promise. 

But what do these expressions involve ? All that they 
involve none perhaps can tell. The presence and influence 
of His Spirit is certainly involved : and, judging from the 
facts of His own history, perhaps more. 

4:3. "We know that He Himself was God manifest in the 
Personally per- Aesh, Deity cnshrined in our nature; and we 
haps. know that, moreover, the Holy Ghost was 

given without measure unto Him. Applying this case to 
our own, it may, perhaps, be said, that as Christ is God, 
He pervades, by His mysterious omnipresence, the whole 
body of His earthly followers, and each of them. As God 
He is certainly the appropriate source and principle of 
holiness ; as maUj He is the appropriate channel for its 
conveyance. As God-man^ therefore. He is both spring 
and stream ; Himself the holiness He gives ; Himself the 
divine nature, which, through His Spirit, is to be united 
by Him with our own. 



§ 3. THE INVISIBLE KING. 319 

44. Or, if we take lower ground, we have then the 
truth that Christ reigns by His Spirit in the ^nd cortainiy 
church ; an agency which the previous suppo- ^^ ^^^^ ^p^^^^- 
sition does not however supersede. Over and above the 
personal indwelling of Christ (if that view be admitted), 
the faithful follower of Christ is blessed with the presence 
of the indwelling Spirit himself; not indeed as an inde- 
pendent agent, but as proceeding from Christ, and as re- 
presenting Him. This last modification is important, be- 
cause it secures the dignity of our Lord, and harmonizes 
the statements of Scripture. Hence He is called the 
''Spirit of the Son,'' ''the Spirit of Jesus." Hence it 
is that the two divine Personages bear in the scheme of 
mediation the same title ; they are both Paracletes^ — Com- 
forters, Teachers, Exhorters, Helpers, and Advocates. 
The worK of intercession, which, perhaps, the title mainly 
implies, is expressly said to be carried on by both. (See 
John xiv. 16 ; 1 John ii. 1 ; Rom. viii. 26.) As Christ is 
the consolation of Israel, so the Spirit is the other Com- 
forter (still the same term) ; expressions that imply the 
complete adaptation of both to human nature in all its 
misery and wants. - 

45. It is a consequence of this view of His office that 
all the duties of the Spirit have reference to 

^T . rni 1 • -FT T 1 • "^'^^ Spirit hon- 

Christ. The things He reveals are things that ois and re- 
belong to him. " He shall receive of mine,'' said 
our Lord, " and shall show it unto you ; He shall bring all 
things to your remembrance whatsoever I have told you ; 
He shall not speak of himself a^' Iomhov, (^. e, of His own 
authority), but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He 
speak." His power of convincing the world, whether of 
sin, or of righteousness, or of judgment, is exercised with 
exclusive reference to the work of the Redeemer ; He will 
prove to men that they are guilty, for they do not believe : 
that they are to be justified only in Christ, and amply in Him, 



320 CHAPTER TI. 

for He has ascended to the Father, and that His is the only 
authority, for the power of the prince of this world is 
justly condemned and is now overthrown. So complete 
is this practical identification, that the position of both in 
the world is the same. By Christ, of himself it was said, 
" The world hateth me," and ''hath not known me ;" and 
of the Spirit, He said," '' The world cannot receive Him, 
because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him." (John 
XV. 18 ; John xiv. IT.) 

46. What an affecting view does this give of our nature 
Father, Son, ^^^ ^^ Diviuc lovc : the Father and the Son 
c^nJraed'in^^ and the Spirit, all subjected to rejection, and 
redemption. ^Y^ bearing with our guilt and seeking our 
recovery ! 

4T. It is o^dng (it may be added) to this miraculous 
union of these divine persons, that they are re- 

The acts of all _ . . , o ^ 

in a sense the prescutcd as co-opcrutiug m each part oi the 

acts of each. ■, n -, -, • t • n l^ 

work of human redemption, it is now the 
Spirit that giveth life," and now it is Christ, the second 
Adam, who is " made a quickening Spirit." (1 Cor. xv. 45.) 
So when Christ is in us, " the Spirit is life ;" and our law 
is '' the law of the Spirit of life in Christ." (Rom. viii. 2, 
10.) Every act of each person of the blessed Trinity is 
thus the act of all : nothing seems done in which all are 
not, though diversely, the agents ; a union that is made to 
represent the union of the church — that ''they all may be 
one," said our Lord, ''as we are one." 

48. The effect of the work of the Spirit in the heart is 
By the Spirit simply the subjugation of all to Christ. He im- 
christ reigns, p^p^s life and holiucss. "By one Spirit we 
are baptized into one body ;" by the same Spirit " vre have 
access to the Father," and through Him Christ reigns and 
will reign till every foe, inward and external, be forever 
subdued. 

49. Why there should be, as we know there is, a close 



§ 3. THE INVISIBLE KING. 321 

connection between the departure of Christ and rphe gin, of the 
the communication of the Spirit, it is not per- the^demut-'*^^ 
haps possible to discover ; but the fact is clearly ^^^ ^^ ^^^^'''*' 
revealed, and there are circumstances in our Saviour^s work 
which may in part explain it. 

50. Christ is our Priest^ ever living to make intercession 
for us ; but His advocacy could scarcely begin 
till His sacrifice was finished, nor His sacrifice 
take effect till it had been publicly and solemnly presented 
before God. 

Christ is our Teacher and Model, and His purpose is to 
conform His Church to Himself. He is therefore presented 
in Scripture as in everything preparing the way for the 
progress of His church. It is His appropriate function as 
our forerunner, Himself to touch the goal ; nor till then is 
He in a position to appeal to His example, and to bequeath 
His Spirit, and to say to us, ^' Follow me." Or, changing 
the figure, it is the work of the Spirit to complete in each 
Christian the image of his Lord, by effecting in him a 
death unto sin and a resurrection to holiness, and an ascen- 
sion of his affections, and finally, of his soul to God ; but 
the Divine Workman could not begin the copy till the 
original was finished : before He could stamp the image 
the die must be complete. 

Christ is our King ; His Spirit is the fruit of victory and 
the gift of conquest ; but the influence of the Spirit cannot 
be bestowed till the triumph is consummated and attested 
by the appearance of the living Sacrifice, Priest and Victor, 
in the presence of the Father. The enlargement, there- 
fore, and the establishment of the kingdom, is postponed 
till the acknowledged defeat of evil through the spirit of 
righteousness incarnate in Christ. 

Here we gain, therefore, a view of a double empire, re- 
quiring a double agency. Christ has a sove- 

.., Ti 17 ^ double em- 

reignty m heaven and another on earth : there pire in heaven 
He intercedes with the Father on the throne in 



322 CHAPTER YT. 

His glory, so also does His Spirit in the unspoken utterances 
of the hearts of His disciples. There he makes mention of His 
sacrifice, pleading on behalf of the guilty His obedience unto 
death : so does His Spirit in convincing the sinner, '' making 
mention of His righteousness and of His only." (Ps. Ixxi. 
16.) To heaven He gives His bodily presence, itself a com- 
memoration and a perpetual advocacy, and on earth He 
works with a power and a vitality which His bodily pre- 
sence never diffused. We gain, therefore, by this arrange- 
ment, an agency which is the perfect image of His own, better 
adapted to our condition of probation, and more mighty 
in promoting our holiness ; ^^ for Christ is not entered into 
the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of 
the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the pre- 
sence of God for us.'^ (Heb. ix. 24.) '' Know ye not that 
ye are the temple of God ; as it is written, I will dwell in 
them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they 
shall be my people. Now if any man defile the temple of 
God, him will God destroy." (1 Cor. iii.) 

52. And this is the ministration which begins with the 

Acts of the Apostles, or, as they have been 
Apostles the Called, the Acts of the Holy Ghost. The in- 

earliest history -, . . , „ t ^ xi 

of this minis- camatiou and mmistry of our Lord was the 
manifestation of the Father and of the Son ; 
our age is the manifestation of the Spirit. 

53. In Matthew and Mark we have nothing of this 

truth; in Luke a little, but most in John, 
dually reveal- The Lord thus rcveals one secret after another, 

ed 

bringing forth each in its season, and leading 
the devout inquirer to say, ^' O the depth of the riches 
both of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God."* 

* " As the Son was working in the world long before His incarnation, 
so did the Holy Ghost also act upon mankind long before His effusion ; 
but as it was at the incarnation of the Son that the fullness of His life 
first manifested itself, so it was not until the effusion which took place 



§ 4. THE SECOND COMING OF OUR LORD. 323 

54. But though this spiritual reign is, in its final uni- 
versality and blessedness, the chief part of His caution, 
kingdom, it is not all. The affairs of the whole prl'^-ieui^f^^^^ 
earth, and, as we may gather from some pas- nature, 
sages of Scripture, of the universe of God, are under His 
management. It is He who ^' determines concerning a 
nation to establish, and concerning a people to establish or 
to destroy,'' to enlarge or to diminish. ^' He is King of 
kings, and Lord of lords.'' All are amenable to His 
authority, and controlled by His power. He girds them 
and guides them, though they know Him not. When they 
move in the direction of His purpose, they are invincible, 
and when they oppose it, they are overthrown. 

There is thus a kingdom within a kingdom — the king- 
dom of His grace within the kingdom of His providence : 
and the one is subservient to the other. He is Head over 
all things unto the church. An almighty Spirit, and bound- 
less resources are at His disposal. Therefore ^'this King 
shall reign and prosper." ^' He shall have dominion also 
from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the 
earth. Yea, all kings shall fall down before Him : all 
nations shall serve Him. His name shall endure for ever : 
His name shall be continued as long as the sun : and men 
shall be blessed in Him : all nations shall call Him 
blessed." 

Sect 4. — The Second Coming of our Lord. 

55. In every age the Church of Christ has sought con- 
solation in the past and in the future. In the 

. . ,. . . p, . Christians ever 

one she contemplates the origin oi her mercies ; look to the past 
in the other, the completion of them ; and in 
both, the unaltered author and channel, '^ Jesus Christ, the 
same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." It can there- 
on the day of Pentecost that the Spirit poured forth all His power." — 
Olehausen, 



324 CHAPTER YI. 

fore excite no surprise to find in Scripture, that the grace 
given to us at the first advent, and the grace to be revealed 
in us at the second, are topics of constant precept and 
encouragement: (1 Cor. i. 4-t :) or that Christians are 
The coming of ^escribcd as ^* waiting for the Son from hea- 
of'dleplnteT^ vcu ;" and as ''looking for the blessed hope 
®^** and the appearing of the glory of the great 

God our Saviour.'^ Christ's first coming and His second 
are the grand objects of their faith and hope. (2 Pet. 
iii. 12.) 

56. But though the coming of Christ is thus a theme of 
Much that is dccpcst interest, there is much in the commu- 
birH^^reSu nidations of Scripture in relation to it that is 
^^^' incomprehensible. The union of Christ with 

His Church is most intimate ; and yet is there between 
them a mysterious separation. How long that separation 
is to continue is a question not answered in the Bible. It 
has already lasted for ages, nor can we tell when it will 
close. '' The times and the seasons which the Father has 
put in His own power," He allows us to examine and 
discuss, but we cannot clearly define them ; they are not 
revealed. 

5t. That this separation will one day cease is undoubted. 
The fact of His ^^^^ uniou betwccn Christ and His church 
coming certain. YRMst bc made apparent. N'ature and grace 
alike proclaim the coming of a glorified Messiah as essen- 
tial to complete their course. Nature through all her 
regions cries aloud for Him who is to restore her unwilling 
frailty, (Rom. viii.,) and to make all things new; and if 
creation groan and travail together in pain for the mani- 
festation of the sons of God, what must be the desire of 
the sons of God themselves, what their ardor, to find them- 
selves perfect in Him ; to behold their labors recognized, 
their faith vindicated, and truth triumphant. This desire 
and hope He will fulfill. The promise of final reunion 



§ 4. THE SECOND COMING OF OUR LORD. 325 

with His people is connected by our Lord himself with 
the declaration of His Messiahship ; for in the same sen- 
tence in which He avows Himself to be the Son of God, 
He foretells that '^hereafter men shall see the Son of Man 
coming in the clouds with power and great glory." (Matt, 
xxiv. 30.) His apostle repeats the truth, and assures us 
that the '' Lord shall descend from heaven with a shout, 
with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of 
God;" (1 Thes. iv. 16;) and that, when He comes, His 
people will be gathered together unto Him. (2 Thes. ii. 1.) 
And so shall they '^ ever be with the Lord." 

58. But while the fact of His coming is certain, the time 
is concealed ; concealed, however, in such a 

, , The time con- 

way as deserves careful inquiry. Wrapt up m ceaied: so con- 
this concealment are most instructive lessons, exdte expecta- 

59. Yery often, for example, the coming of 

our Lord is spoken of as impending, and at hand. In the 
twenty-fourth of Matthew the words of Christ -^^^ ^jp^^^^ ^^ 
read as if He meant to imply that, immediately ^^ " *^ ^a^^-" 
after the overthrow of Jerusalem, the standard of His glory 
should appear in the heavens : the first event indicating to 
the disciples that their redemption drew nigh. In the first 
Epistle to the Thessalonians again, St. Paul seems to 
speak of himself and of his fellow-disciples, as those who 
*'are alive and remain to the coming of Christ" in glory; 
and declares elsewhere that He who is coming (o ipxofxsvos) 
will come, and will not tarry. The apostle James is 
equally explicit: ^'Be patient; stablish your hearts; for 
the coming of the Lord draweth nighy ''The end of all 
things," says Peter, ''is at hand; be ye therefore sober, 
and watch unto prayer;" and our Lord Himself appearing 
in the book of Revelation, closes His warnings with the 
repeated assertion, " Behold I come quicMy.^^ (Heb. x. 3t ; 
James v. 8 ; 1 Pet. iv. 1.) 

On the other hand, passages in the same inspired writers 

28 



326 CHAPTER VI. 

Now" as re- ^^ strongly point to a remote period as the 
mote." ^ij^g Qf jj^g coming ; while others teach plainly 

that all definite information in relation to it is purposely 
withheld. In the chapter of Matthew, for example, just 
quoted, our Lord warns His disciples that the Gospel is 
first to be preached for a witness unto all nations, before 
the end come ; and in the following chapter He com- 
pares Himself to a master of servants who cometh ^' after 
a long time," and '^reckoneth with them.'' (v. 14 ; 25-29.) 
The same Paul, who, in the first Epistle to the Thes- 
salonians, addressed the church as if those who were then 
alive were to behold Christ, warns them in his second 
Epistle, that his words were not meant to justify any such 
conviction, inasmuch as that day was to be preceded by a 
great apostasy, and of course by a still greater diffusion of 
truth. The apostle who speaks of His coming as ^^ draw- 
ing nigh," exhorts Christians to endurance from the exam- 
ple of the long patience of the husbandman waiting for the 
fruits of the earth. (James v. ?.) And Peter, who, in his 
first Epistle speaks of the end of all things as at hand, and 
bids Christians hope for the grace that is to be brought 
unto them at- the revelation of Jesus Christ, in his second 
Epistle meets objections to the tardy approach of the 
Judge ; not by denying the fact, but by reminding his 
readers, that the march of Providence is not to be measured 
by earthly conceptions, and that with God a thousand 
years are as one day, and one day as a thousand years. 
(2 Pet. iii. 8.) So also in Revelation the promise of the 
speedy advent of Christ is preceded by a description of 
antecedent events which seem to fill up long ages of time. 

61. Yet more decisive as proof of a purpose to conceal 
Now as though t^^ t™6> ^^^ th^ passages which tell us plainly 
foimatlon^ ^"" ^^^^ ^^^ definite information on this subject is 
were withheld, ^yithheld. " Of that day and hour," says our 
Lord, ^'knoweth no man; no, not the angels which are 



§ 4. THE SECOND COMING OF OUR LORD. 32 T 

in heaven; neither the Son, but the Father." *' The 
Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.'' The 
master of the house may come ^' at even, or at midnight, 
or at cock-crowing, or in the morning;" but whenever he 
comes it '^ shall be as a thief; as the flood of Noah, and as 
a snare to all them that dwell on the face of the whole 
earth." (Mark xiii. 35.) *' And ye yourselves know per- 
fectly," says the apostle, '^ that that day so cometh as a 
thief in the night." (1 Thess. v. 2 ; 2 Pet. iii. 10.) 

62. The apparent contradiction of these passages — a 
contradiction only apparent — has often excited 

Hence the 

uneasiness and even suspicion. Infidels and douus of some 

_ T ^- , . , , n Christians and 

professed Christians have taken occasion from the scoffs of 
them either to doubt the coming of our Lord 
itself, or to examine, with curious unsettled feeling, the 
question of the time. The doubts and suspicion of both 
these parties are expressly foretold. Our Lord 

. . , , / ^ T_r. Both foretold. 

intimates that before He appears, even His 
servants may begin to say in their hearts, '^ My Lord 
delayeth His coming." (Luke xii. 45.) And Peter says 
plainly that '' in the last days scoffers shall come walking 
after their own lust ; and saying, where is the promise of 
His coming ? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things 
continue as they were from the beginning of the creation." 
(2 Pet iii. 3.) Nothing, therefore, is unforeseen ; and 
even the unbelief of man contributes evidence in support 
of the Divine origin of the Gospel. 

63. How, then, are we to account for the peculiar 
phraseolofiTV of the Scriptures on this question, 

, . f -, ,. -, -, , . T . Reasons for 

the mingled light and obscurity, the seeming this apparent 

. . o T 1 contradiction. 

opposition of announcements c In reply, we 

remark that there are facts which relieve the difficulty ; 

and, perhaps, remove it. 

64. First : it deserves to be noticed that *' the coming 
of Christ" is a phrase used in Scripture in different senses. 



828 CHAPTER VI. 

(1.) His appearance in the flesh is so called, both at 
Meaning of the ^is birth and on His entrance upon His public 
co^n^'fthe Hiiuistrj. In this sense He is come (John x^i. 
Lord.'° 28 ; 1 John iv. 2, 3 ; 2 John 1 ; Matt, xviii. 

11 ; XX. 28 ; Eph. ii. lY ;) and in this sense for thirty 
years of His life He was to come. (Matt. iii. 11 ; Mark i. 
1 ; Luke iii. 16 ; John i. 15-30 ; Matt. xi. 19.) 

(2.) Any great interposition either of His Providence 
or of His Spirit is so called : ^' Repent," says He, in ad- 
dressing an early church, '' or I will come, and take thy 
candlestick out of its place." (Rev. ii. 5.) 

He himself applies it to the outpouring of His Spirit 
and the consequent beginning of His reign. ^' Yerily I 
say unto you, there are some standing here that shall not 
taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His 
kingdom." '' Ye shall not have gone through the cities 
of Judah till ye see the Son of Man coming in power." 
(John xiv. 18—28 ; Matt. xvi. 28 ; Mark ix. 1.) 

His coming to destroy Jerusalem, to end the previous 
dispensation, to manifest the justice and the faithfulness of 
God, is emphatically so called ; and His predictions of this 
coming were fulfilled within forty years of our Lord's 
death. (Matt. xxiv. 2 ir~30 ; see ver. 34 ; Luke xxi. 21, &c.) 

(3.) It is applied to His visible appearance for judgment, 
(Matt. xvi. 2Y; 1 Thess. v.,) and, as some Christians 
hold, for the complete establishment of His kingdom. 
Whether this last be a visible appearance is, so far as the 
present question is concerned, unimportant. The reign of 
righteousness is foretold, and is even begun. In that 
glorious issue all believe. Some, however, hold that right- 
eousness will reign in the person of our Lord ; while others 
think that His reign is spiritual only : having commenced 
at Pentecost, and being completed in the universal diffu- 
sion of His truth. That His coming to judgment is per- 



§ 4. THE SECOND COMING OF OUR LORD. 329 

sonal, nearly all agree. He is to appear in the clouds of 
heaven, and every eye is to see Him. (Acts i. 11.) 

The use to be made of these facts is obvious. It is 
clear that we must set aside, as free from difficulty, all the 
passages that speak of our Lord's first coming, of the 
destruction of Jerusalem, or of any unexpected visitation in 
the early church. The announcements they contain of a 
speedy return have all been fulfilled. 

Of other passages, and the difficulties they involve, we 
have other solutions. 

Secondly : the coming of Christ in His kingdom and for 
judgment is not a single act, but many combined. He 
came to reign at Pentecost ; He comes as each Christian 
repents and believes His Gospel ; in all the glory of His 
reign He is still to come. He came in judgment at the 
destruction of Jerusalem : He comes in judgment at the 
death of the sinner : for final judgment He is still to come. 
To each believer redemption is drawing nigh. Every 
sinner is already hastening to the coming of the day of 
God. And within a few brief years we all shall have 
passed to our account with shame or with honor. It may 
be affirmed, therefore, as a fact, that Christ comes to re- 
deem or to judge at death, and that each instance of His 
coming is a kind of type of His final appearance — is to the 
man, what that will be to the race. The final coming will 
in truth but confirm and perpetuate what is done^ when 
we die. As a principle of interpretation, therefore, the 
amplest announcements of complete salvation for the church, 
and of awful vengeance for those who reject the Gospel, 
have repeated fulfillments. For each of us, ^Hhe end of 
all things is at hand." Christ is coming, and is even now 
*'at the door.''* 

"-■'■ See this truth illustrated in the fulfillment of Christ's promise that 

He would come to His disciples, as given in John xiv. 3. The fulfillment 

^began with His resurrection, v. 18; was carried on in their spiritual life, 

28* 



330 CHAPTER VI. 

65. Thirdly : these expressions may be justified on an- 
Things near or ^ther ground. The language of Scripture must 
fn^^to*thTscaie ^l^ays bc interpreted with reference to the 
employed. schcmc of things of which it treats. What is 
near on one scale is distant on another. 

The coming of our Lord may be remote when measured 
on the scale of human life ; but, measured on the scale 
suggested by the interval between the first promise and its 
fulfillment, or by the eternity which His coming is to intro- 
duce, it may seem even at hand. We are now occupying 
a place between the two advents ; the whole interval fills 
the sphere of our vision, and seems therefore vast and 
boundless. Let us wait, however, till we look back upon 
it the day after the last judgment, when it will be seen as 
the commencement of an endless progress, and it will have 
lessened to a point. Then the scenes of Calvary and the 
glory that has followed them will appear in retrospect as 
they did appear to the prophet. There He is seen ^' taken 
from prison and from judgment ;" ^^ despised and rejected 
of men.'' Here He sees ''the travail of His soul and is 
satisfied.'' (Is. liii. 8, 3, IL) Between the two events 
thousands of years may have intervened ; but they are 
thought of no more. 

And this form of announcement, it may be added, has 
been God's plan from the first. The prima3val 

Sothewholeof . \ . 

the language promisc soundcd as II it was to be fulfilled m 
the first age after the fall ; but four thousand 
years passed away before the Seed of the woman was born, 
and the power of the old serpent was subdued. The tem- 
poral promise to Abraham, that his seed should inherit the 
land in which he was himself a stranger, seemed at first to 
require an early accomplishment ; but at the end of two 
hundred years his seed did not number seventy souls ; and 

V. 23; advanced when each Christian died, Phil. i. 23; and is completed 
at His coming in glory. 1 Thes. iv. 17. 



§ 4. THE SECOND COMING OF OUR LORD. 331 

it was not till David's time that the greater part of that 
prediction was realized. The last prophet, Malachi, spoke 
as if the first advent was to be witnessed by the men of 
that age : ^' The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come 
to his temple," (Mai. iii. 1,) and yet ten generations died 
before the time came ; and the temple even of which he 
spoke needed almost to be rebuilt, before it could be filled 
with the glory of its great Guest. The truth seems to be, 
that the movements of the providence of God may be pro- 
nounced near or remote, large or small, as we measure 
them by God's standard or by our own. Now He speaks 
as if the coming of His Son were at hand, as if a few more 
years were to bring in the new heaven and the new earth ; 
and again, as if His days were thousands of years ; and 
both descriptions are true. Here, it is God that speaks as 
God, and there He speaks as man, condescending to our 
weakness, and addressing us in tones and forms familiar to 
ourselves. 

But, fourthly, these facts have a deeper significancy. 
This apparent contradiction (which is really aii intended to 
none,) this clear obscurity is intended; it is ?^e°ftTaUing 
salutary; it forms an important part of our ^^^ Christ. 
discipline. God means us to examine and conjecture ; and, 
doubtless, the investigations of good men into the mean- 
ing of the prophetic Scriptures, conducted in an humble 
practical spirit, are acceptable to Him. To cherish expec- 
tation, and to encourage inquiry. He has permitted gleams 
of light to cross our path. But it is at least as clear that, 
while He means us to inquire. He does not mean us to 
define ; and, therefore, our light consists only of gleams. 
He that is coming will come. His coming is as certain as 
His existence ; for He is equally the existing and the 
coming One (o C!>v and o ^^x^^^^^s ;) but all certainty concern- 
ing the time of His coming is withheld. 

And withheld so as to excite our watchfulness and hope. 



832 CHAPTER VI. 

Had the time of His appearance been foretold, the cer- 
tainty would have destroyed our hope^ and His coming 
would have been regarded with comparative unconcern by 
all except the single generation that was to witness it. 
The anxious solicitude now cherished amongst us would 
have been chilled into indifference ; the movements of the 
providence and the grace of God, which are now studied 
so thoughtfully, would have been watched with little inter- 
est ; and it may be safely afi&rmed that the character of the 
piety of the church would have been seriously changed. 
We should have been saved by hope — by the patient wait- 
ing for God — no more. 

With consummate skill, therefore, has the whole lan- 
guage of revelation been constructed, in real harmony, 
though in apparent contradiction, so as to produce this one 
result. When and how Christ is to appear we know not ; 
but we are waiting for Him. Our feeling is watchfulness 
and hope, certainty and doubt, inquiry and awe. It is 
Christ's purpose thus ''to live in our faith, remote yet near, 
pledged to no moment, possible at any ; worshiped, not 
with the consternation of a near, or the indifference of a 
remote certainty ; but with the watchful vigilance that 
awaits a contingency that is ever at hand.''* These feel- 
ings He who knows us best knows to be best for us ; and 
therefore He preserves the salutary suspense which ensures 
and deepens them. 

66. But every provision of Divine wisdom is liable to 
abuse. God is a spirit, and His spirituality is 
ment liable to His glory ; but bccausc He is a spirit, and 
therefore unseen, men have denied His exist- 
ence. The time of Christ's coming is not told us ; and 
therefore men are tempted to deny the judgment ; or, at 
least, the uncertainty which was meant for holy watchful- 
ness is abused to godless security. 

* Prof. Butler's Sermons. Dublin, 1819. 



§ 4. THE SECOND COMING OF OUR LORD. 333 

Alas for us ! The forbearance of God leadeth to repent- 
ance; but men know it not: ^^The Lord is 
not slack concerning His promise, but is long- owfng^to'uls 
sufTering to us ward ; not willing that any 
should perish, but that all should come to repentance." 
(2 Pet. iii. 9.) He would rather be known in love than in 
terror. Christ, the sacrifice, continues to be revealed, that 
we may not one day be dragged into the presence of Christ, 
the judge. ISTow He is mighty to save ; then he will be 
mighty to destroy. He defers the hour of His coming 
that He may multiply the number of His redeemed. De- 
spise not this grace : seek not to frustrate this purpose> 
If His first advent is loved, we shall welcome and wait for 
His second ; but if His first advent is despised, his second 
will be contemplated with dismay. If our hearts are not 
prepared to receive this glorious Redeemer ; if we have no 
taste for a kingdom of purity, and meekness, and love, no 
desire for the bringing in of '' an everlasting righteousness," 
His coming will not therefore be annulled : but it will be 
to us a coming in wrath. Our feeling will correspond with 
fearful accuracy to the description of the prophet : ''Then 
shall the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the 
rich men, and the mighty men cry, saying to the moun- 
tains, and to the rocks. Fall upon us, and hide us from the 
face of Him that sitteth upon the throne, and from the 
wrath of the Lamb." '' The wrath of the Lamb !" The 
wTath of exhausted patience ; the wrath of rejected media- 
tion, and of despised love : '' The wrath of the Lamb !" 

And now our work is done. Rapidly and imperfectly 
have we sketched that Life which is the source of all 
life, and to which we owe our all. We have traced Him in 
infancy and in manhood ; in secret and among the crowds ; 
at work and in prayer. We have listened to His teaching. 
We have watched His sacrifice. We have heard the an- 



334 CHAPTER VI. 

nouncement of His kingdom. As man He has won our 
love. As God He has claimed our reverence. He has 
appeared as Creator ; as Redeemer ; as Judge. Religion 
begins in submission to His righteousness, and it is com- 
pleted in likeness to His character. Conformity to His 
death and the truths it teaches is renewal and pardon ; 
conformity to His life is holiness and bliss. ^' Be wise now, 
therefore, ye kings : be instructed, ye judges of the 
earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trem- 
bling ; kiss the Son lest He be angry, and ye perish from 
the way wien his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed 

ARE ALL THEY THAT PUT THEIR TRUST IN HiM." 



APPENDIX. 



ISToTE I. (Page 93.) 

Although the idea of the Messianic Kingdom of God 
may be truly said to pervade the Old Testament prophe- 
cies, the phraseology of the New Testament seems clearly 
derived from the language of Daniel, in expounding the 
symbolic imagery of Nebuchadnezzar's first grand prophetic 
dream. '' In the days of these kings shall the God of 
Heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, '^ 
&c. In the seventh chapter, this kingdom is disclosed as 
strictly Messianic (vs. 13, 14 ; comp. ix. 25, 26,) and holy, 
(v. 21 ;) being given to the Messiah, and through Him to 
*Hhe people of the saints of the Most Pligh.'' 

Hence the language of John the Baptist, of Christ, and 
His Apostles ; '^ The time is fulfilled ; the kingdom of God 
is at hand; repent ye, and believe the Gospel '' — words 
which do not merely designate the prophetic time, but more 
strongly still the spiritual and holy nature of the approach- 
ing kingdom. This last point is strikingly demonstrated 
by our Lord himself at the beginning of his ministry, in 
his conversation with Nicodemus ; ''Yerily, verily, I say 
unto thee. Except a man be horn again he cannot see the 
kingdom of God." (John iii.) In precise accordance with 
this view, Paul speaks of Christians as '' delivered from 
the power of darkness, and translated into the kingdom 
of God's dear Son.'' (Col. i. 13.) This kingdom then 
properly includes only the regenerate, the holy — those who 
receive Christ, and submit to His authority as their Su- 
preme Head. Of such only, as far as man could judge, 
were the primitive churches organized ; and the fearful 

deaths of Judas, Ananias and Sapphira, were evidently 

(335) 



336 APPENDIX. 

designed as warnings against the intrusion of others into 
the visible fold of Christ. (Acts i. 18 ; v. 11-.14.) 

Yet inasmuch as such intruders could not always be de- 
tected, and it was foreseen that their number would increase 
through relaxation of vigilance in future time, the phrases 
*' kingdom of God, and of Heaven," appear to be used 
by Christ in some of the prophetic parables with greater 
latitude — as embracing all who profess submission to 
Christ, whether that profession is made in sincerity or not. 
(Matt, xiii.) J. N". B. 

Note II. (Page 249 and 251.) 

One fertile source of practical error has been the con- 
founding of the Yisible with the Invisible Church, and 
reasoning from this assumed identity, that they differ from 
each other only as a part differs from the whole. 

The essential difference between the two, appears in the 
following extract from Curtis on Communion : 

*' So far from it being a manifest truth, that it is only a 
difference of numbers that constitutes the distinction be- 
tween a particular Visible Church and the Universal 
Church, which is invisible ; there are at least two obvious 
points of distinction as to qualification necessarily arising 
from the fact, that the one is a visible, and the other an 
invisible body. 1. He who possesses true piety with- 
out any profession, becomes at once a member of the in- 
visible Church, while he only, who makes some credible 
and appropriate profession, (without here determining 
what it is) is eligible to visible Church fellowship. 2. A 
credible profession of faith in Christy in some particular 
way or ways, is all that can be required for admission to 
the one, while no conceivable profession without the reality 
admits to the other." J. N. B. 



i 

THE END. 



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